Hunter x in the x Making
by Mrs.InsaneOne
Summary: Anger, fear, guilt, and desperation force Harry to flee Hogwarts in the wake of the fiasco that was the Tri-Wizard Tournament after overhearing Dumbledore and Snape speaking about the need for Harry to die in order to fulfill the prophecy. Evil!Dumbledore & Evil!Snape. Pairings; HP/Canary, HG/RW
1. A x Conversation x Overheard

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN1:** _Yep, this is yet another evil Dumbledore and evil Snape story. It is, however, the only evil Dumbledore story that I have on the books for now since my other WIP stories that I am posting are all misguided or human Dumbledore (not counting my Pokemon and Gundam crossovers. There will be little bashing in this story though... well there will be the bashing in of faces but that is only to be expected given the nature of the Hunter x Hunter series. =)  
_

**AN2:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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**Hunter x in the x Making****  
**Chapter One: A x Conversation x Overheard

Unable to sleep due to the nightmares that had been haunting him and feeling too uneasy and restless to drown out the wretched dreams with Dreamless Sleep for the second night in a row, fourteen year old Harry Potter slipped silently out of his bed and pulled on his invisibility cloak. Hidden from the naked eye with the magical cloak that had once belonged to his father, Harry made his way out of Gryffindor Tower and wandered through the halls of Hogwarts until he found an out of the way window alcove above eye level that faced the lake. Climbing up into the window sill, Harry tucked the edges of the invisibility cloak around his feet and beneath his legs to prevent a breeze from exposing any portion of his body and giving away his presence.

He then leaned back against the wall and turned to stare out over the shadow cloaked grounds; his thoughts once more returning to the fiasco that was the final task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament and the terrible ritual that he'd been forced to play a part in just two days earlier. Bile burned the back of Harry's throat as his mind once again replayed Cedric's death and it was only through will power alone that he didn't empty his stomach. Harry shoved the memory of Pettigrew casting the Killing Curse at Cedric to the back of his mind as he closed his eyes and struggled to take slow, deep breaths in order to calm his stomach. He'd barely brought himself back under control when he heard a pair of familiar voices approaching his refuge.

"… in a foul mood due to the brat escaping yet again. The fools that rushed to his side when he first called for everyone suffered greatly for failing to prevent him from getting away," Severus Snape reported in his usual borderline caustic tone though Harry could hear an undercurrent of pain in the man's voice. "He was also less than pleased to learn that Crouch Jr. was kissed; he'd planned for Crouch Jr. to infiltrate the Ministry by impersonating his father. The Dark Lord is at least content to know that Madam Bones will be unable to question Crouch Jr. for any additional information."

"He was not angry with you for not appearing when he first called?" Albus Dumbledore inquired as both men slowed to a stop in the puddle of moonlight that fell through the window in which Harry was perched.

"No, he was quite pleased that I remained here and gathered a wealth of intelligence on what was happening here in the wake of Potter's escape; though he was not pleased with all of the information that I had passed to him. However, he was positively gleeful when I reported the Minister's stance in regards to the brat's announcement of the Dark Lord's rebirth and he intends to take full advantage of Fudge's idiocy."

"Do you know what he is planning?"

"He intends to keep a low profile for the next year or two in order to make people doubt the validity of Potter's claims that he has been raised from the dead. He has ordered Lucius to maneuver Fudge into starting a smear campaign against you and the brat in the hopes that any suspected Death Eater activities will be buried beneath the accusations that the bumbling Minister is bound bring up as time progresses."

"What does he intend to do about the boy?"

"Nothing at the moment; he obviously still wants the arrogant brat dead but the Dark Lord is seeking more information before he dares attempt to face him again. He grilled me endlessly for three hours straight about the prophecy; trying to determine if I held anything back from him when I first delivered the information to him. He also sought to know what kind of student Potter has been all of this time and I didn't hesitate to inform the Dark Lord that the arrogant brat has no real talent for anything and that he's barely scraped by the passing grades necessary to return each year."

"If only that were actually true," Dumbledore lamented much to Harry's shock. "I will have to add additional bindings to the ones that I have placed on the boy over the past thirteen years in order to limit his abilities further. I can't risk the boy's natural talents being displayed in front of the student body yet again as not only would that jeopardize your precarious position as Voldemort's spy if one of the Death Eaters' children were to give a report that contradicts yours but it would potentially allow the wretched boy to escape death once more."

"Will you pretend to train him this year in order to 'prepare' him for his destiny?"

"No, I will distance myself from the boy this year… let him flounder and struggle with the guilt he undoubtedly feels after witnessing the death of his fellow champion. I will need to make certain that his friends give him 'breathing space' this summer as well in order to limit the amount of information he receives while outside of school and to keep him as isolated as possible to keep him further off balance and therefore malleable."

"Have you spoken to the Dursleys about your plans for the brat this summer?"

"Yes, they've been informed to keep the boy in the house as much as possible, to limit his access to any form of media, and to lock up his things along with the snowy owl golem that I replaced his owl with at the start of this year; damn bird was beginning to become a nuisance each time I attempted to scan the boy's correspondence. I also assured Petunia that the boy will be unable to use his godfather as a threat against her and her family this year like he did last summer. I've placed several Compulsion Charms on both Lupin and Black to convince them that they don't need to worry about the boy, to avoid all contact with the boy, and to stay as far away from him as they can in order to protect the boy from Death Eaters."

"My darling half-sister must have been pleased to hear that."

"Almost as pleased as she was with the money I delivered to her," Dumbledore chortled. "Oh, that reminds me; will you have enough time to brew a batch of Dream Enhancer Elixir before the students leave? Petunia will need to have enough on hand to last for the duration of the summer break; a lack of sleep and a constant reminder of his failures should help weaken the boy's mental shields in preparation for the Occlumency lessons that you agreed to give him next year when we discussed next year's class schedule a few weeks ago. I've already had Madam Pince pull all of the Occlumency texts from the shelves so that there will be no chance of the boy or the annoying Granger twit stumbling across the necessary instructions once you start training him."

"I can have the Enhancer finished by tomorrow afternoon," Snape replied after a moment's contemplation. "I should also have enough time to brew a Nightmare Inducer, if you wish to have a back up in case the boy builds up a tolerance to the Enhancer."

"Wonderful suggestion, Severus my boy, bring me both potions as soon as you have them finished and I will see to it that they are delivered promptly."

"Was there anything else you needed from me, Albus?"

"When did Tom order you to return to his side?"

"Two days after the students leave for the summer break."

"That gives me four days to come up with a reason for Tom to seek the boy out by the end of next term in order to kill him once and for all."

"I thought you intended to draw the war out for another six to ten year in order to properly cow the wizarding world?"

"I originally did but the boy is proving far too troublesome of a pawn to keep in check and I'd rather not allow him a chance to fall in love and produce the next generation of Potters or worse, Evanses, before I trick Tom into killing him. I did not miss the fact that he began to notice girls this year and if he grows any closer to the blasted Weasley brood it could spell disaster for my future plans. It was bad enough his mother managed to marry the last of the Potters, giving her wretched son access to the Potter Inheritances, but adding the high fertility of the Prewitt females in the mix (should he take up with the youngest Weasley) would ruin all of the hard work I put into eradicating the lines of both Potters and Evanses."

"I could brew a dose of Aboleo Fertilitas to slip to the Potter brat," Snape offered as the two men finally began walking away from the window where the invisible Harry was sitting. "There would be no need to worry about him reproducing at all once the potion finished rendering him infertile."

"Tempting, but you can't administer the Aboleo Fertilitas until after a wizard has reached his majority; otherwise there is a fifty-fifty chance that it will not completely render the wizard infertile. And subsequent doses will not work at all to correct the problem; that's how I ended up with the boy's father after I tried dosing his grandfather with that particular potion when he first arrived at Hogwarts. I had dosed his father as well but not until after he'd already gotten the Evans trollop pregnant. Besides, I have no intention of allowing the boy to live past his sixteenth birthday; I just have to get Tom to somehow…"

Harry sat frozen in shock, hardly daring to even breathe, for close to an hour after Snape's and Dumbledore's voices had faded away. He couldn't believe that he'd just overheard Snape and Dumbledore plotting his death. He'd considered Dumbledore as something of a grandfather for the past four years and to learn that the man saw him as nothing more than a pawn hurt. The knowledge that Petunia was in on the deal didn't surprise him (she'd never made any effort to hide the fact that she hated Harry) but the fact that she was Snape's half-sister was enough to make him sick over the mere thought that Snape could be in any way, shape, or form related to him.

Once Harry could move again, he slipped down off the window ledge and wandered aimlessly through the halls of the castle as the first traces of panic began to set in. He had to get away from Hogwarts and he had to get away _now_. He couldn't allow Dumbledore to bind his magic (something he'd apparently done at least once in the past) and he most definitely didn't want to be forced back to Privet Drive where he'd be tormented with potion enhanced nightmares for the next ten weeks.

The traumatized fourteen year old eventually ended up back in the Gryffindor Common Room with no knowledge of how he'd made it back to the tower or how he'd gotten through the portrait. Harry pulled off his invisibility cloak and just stood in the center of the empty room for a long time trying to come up with an escape plan. He had no idea just how long he'd been standing in a panic filled haze there when a persistent tugging on his pants drew his attention downwards to where a worried Dobby was staring up at him with concern. Harry stared at the elf blankly for several minutes until he recalled how Dobby had helped Harry more than once over the course of the year.

"Dobby, can you help me?" Harry asked desperately as he dropped to his knees in front of the elf. "Dumbledore and Snape… there was talk of potions and bindings… death and lies… and terrible things… Please…? I don't know who else I can trust and I can't risk involving my friends, least they get hurt because of me."

"The great Harry Potter sir is in trouble?" Dobby asked in response; his large ears stiffening while his large green eyes grew wide.

"They're going to kill me," Harry hoarsely replied. "They're going to bind my magic to make me even weaker before they send me to face Voldemort again so that the Dark Lord can kill me. I have to… I have to leave, now. I have no idea where to go but I know I can't stay here and the further I am away from my relatives the better. I can't ask Hermione or any of the Weasleys for help because I can't let them get hurt because of me."

"Dobby wants to help his friend but Dobby has to obey the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Dobby would have to find a proper master to bond with him to break the partial bond that binds Dobby to Hogwarts and then Dobby would be free to help his friend."

"A master…? I thought you were a free elf? Didn't you tell me that Dumbledore is paying you?"

"Dobby is only half free because Dobby is accepting monies but Dobby is still bound to serve the castle because house elves need the anchor the bond provides to keep our minds. Without the bond, our minds break apart and we lose ourselves; it is a fate worth than death for a house elf to lose his mind. Winky is already gone; her mind shattered by her broken heart because she loved her master too much and she wasn't accepting a new bond or monies for paying so Winky not even have the partial bond that Dobby has to keep her whole."

"Why didn't you tell that to Hermione? She's been trying to free all of the elves."

"Headmaster Dumbledore forbade the elves from telling Harry Potter's Grangy the truth."

"Okay… somehow that doesn't surprise me; I'll have to pass that information on to Hermione later. For now, you said if we find you a new master, then you'll be able to help me escape?"

"Yes."

"How do we do that?"

"If Harry Potter sir bonds with Dobby, then Harry Potter sir will be Dobby's new master and Dobby will be able to help his friend. Any other master might order Dobby not to help his friend," Dobby timidly pointed out as he clasped his hands behind his back, lowered his gaze to the floor, and toed the floor in front of him.

"Me?"

"Yes."

"Don't you have to be an adult to bond with an elf?"

"No, a new master only needs to have enough magic to bond with a new elf. Harry Potter sir was strong enough to bond dozens of house elves two years ago and you has only grown stronger; even with most of Harry Potter sir's magic locked away."

"Oh… I didn't know that. I guess, if you're sure you don't mind having me as master, I'm okay with you bonding to me but you're going to have to explain it to Hermione because I really don't want her yelling at me."

"Dobby doesn't mind," the elf replied as he wrapped his arms around Harry's left arm and hugged him as he grinned at the young wizard. "Dobby wanted to be the great Harry Potter sir's elf since the day Harry Potter sir freed Dobby from nasty old master. Dobby teach Harry Potter sir how to form the bond now so Dobby can be saving his friend."

The process took approximately one hour as Harry had difficulty casting the spell through the bindings that had been placed upon his core at some point in his life. Once it was finished though (and the elf's giddiness that had been caused by the influx of his magic had faded), Dobby snapped into action; fetching Harry's things from his dorm room, removing the rather large assortment of Tracking Charms, Compulsion Charms, and Loyalty Charms that had been cast upon nearly everything that Harry owned, and popping Harry across the castle to where a blank stretch of wall sat across from a tapestry of a wizard trying to teach trolls to dance. The fourteen year old then watched as Dobby paced back and forth in front of the blank stretch of wall, only to jump back in surprise when a door suddenly appeared after the third or forth time the elf crossed the same place.

"Master Harry Potter sir will find all that he needs in here," Dobby explained as he opened the door to reveal a small room with a cozy chair, a table, the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore's phoenix, and seven rather dusty boxes. "This is being the Come and Go Room where the things one needs most is found."

"Why would I need Dumbledore's phoenix?" Harry demanded in a voice that cracked with fear as Fawkes glanced up to meet Harry's gaze.

"**Immortal beings such as I can not be owned by foolish wizards,**" Fawkes countered irritably in a melodious voice as he ruffled his wings. "**I am bound to Hogwarts and represent the castle's heart. I may have to cater to the whims of the fool that calls himself our Headmaster so long as he remains the Headmaster of the school but he is not my master and he can not stop me from aiding those who ask for help while they call this castle home.**"

"Don't just stand there gawking, Mr. Potter," the Sorting Hat ordered as he shifted around to glance at the teen. "Step inside and close the door so that we may provide you with the help you so desperately need."

Harry automatically complied and soon found himself seated in the only chair inside of the room facing both Fawkes and the Sorting Hat. After a long minute where the three of them simply stared at one another, Harry nervously asked, "How exactly can you help me? I mean, there's no basilisk to fight this time… so…?"

"**Children are such simple creatures,**" Fawkes remarked with a mixture of exasperation and amusement as he bent his neck and preened his chest feathers.

"You should be thankful that you don't have muck about in their minds every year," the Sorting Hat harrumphed as he shifted around to scowl up at the phoenix. The Hat then turned back to Harry as he replied, "To answer your question, we're going to give you the tools you need to escape the tangled web that Albus has been weaving around you since the day your great-grandfather first made a name for himself. First, Hogwarts has collected a number of books that will provide you with a wealth of information that has been denied to generations of young witches and wizards."

Fawkes rose from his perch beside the Sorting Hat and fetched three of the dusty boxes in the room and carried them over to Harry side one at a time as the Hat continued to speak, "Through the years, Dumbledore has convinced the Ministry of Magic to ban more than half of the books gathered because they contain information on magics that are no longer attainable to the purebloods due to generations of inbreeding and the loss of hundreds of magical inheritances. There is no guarantee that you will be able to learn all of the magic held within their pages but the knowledge will stand you in good stead and give you a good foundation to learn the higher magics that few people in the last five centuries have seen."

"The rest of the books contain basic information on the inner workings of the wizarding world; information that you and all of your muggleborn and muggle raised peers should have been taught over the course of your first year in order to better help you integrate your lives into the wizarding world. The removal of that information from the syllabus near the turn of the century has only fueled the tension between muggleborns and purebloods and created an ever widening chasm between the muggle and magical worlds. It is nothing short of a travesty that so many potential witches and wizards have perished because they lacked the proper understanding of the hazards that they face as magicals."

"Next, the castle has gathered the navigational tools that you will need to help find your way in the world and the written guides to teach you how to use them. A few of them may need to be cleaned and repaired before they can be of use but their magic is still as strong as it was the day they were enchanted. Included amongst those items are a few artifacts that will prevent someone from locating you using magical means; such as scrying or blood based locator rituals. The rest of the items that were collected were an assortment of supplies, devices, and training props that will aide you in your travels or help you to learn the older magics described within the books."

"Travel…? Can't I just find an old house to hide in? Won't it be dangerous to move about?" Harry demanded worriedly.

"**There is no place within magical Britain where you would be safe from Albus's machinations,**" Fawkes gently pointed out as he finished bringing over the rest of the boxes.

"Where would I go then? I don't even have a passport!"

"**The Children of War will help you but first Sortilegus must free you from the bindings that have bound your body, mind, magic, and soul.**"

"Sorta who?"

"Sortilegus," the Sorting Hat corrected snootily as he sat up straighter. "You didn't think my name was simply the Sorting Hat, did you?" Harry blushed bright red and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he avoided looking at the hat; he had actually thought that the hat's name was the Sorting Hat. Sortilegus huffed and shook his brim out as he groused, "It's a good thing Godric didn't leave me with the ability to hold a grudge against snot-nosed brats. I'd have started strangling them centuries ago for all of the insults they've directed at me; both knowingly and unknowingly. I suppose in your case you at least had an excuse; seeing as how Albus meddled with your mental capabilities."

"Is that your way of calling me messed up in the head?" Harry asked as he tipped his head to the side and considered the hat for a moment.

"If the brim fits," Sortilegus retorted with a wheezing chuckle. "Enough playing around, child; put me on your head so I can sort things out for you again."

"What do you mean again?" Harry inquired as he picked up the hat and placed it on his head.

"_I removed one of the bindings when you first sat beneath my brim to be sorted into your house,_" Sortilegus whispered into his ear as the hat settled firmly onto his head. "_I removed another the day you challenged me in your second year and another on the day you fought the basilisk. Sadly, Albus soon realized that I was meddling in his plans and he took pains to prevent me from being placed upon your head yet again. He's also replaced each of the bindings I'd removed in addition to adding several new ones over top of the ones I had not been able to remove the other three times I sat upon your brow. Brace yourself, child; this is going to be more than a little unpleasant because there is not enough time for me to slowly unravel the bindings one at a time._"

Harry had barely finished processing the cryptic warning that Sortilegus had given him when it felt like someone was ripping his brain to shreds. He opened his mouth to scream only to find he couldn't breathe as the pain soon expanded from his brain to his heart and his entire chest exploded in agony. It was a hundred times worse than being subjected to the Cruciatus Curse and if he had been able to form a coherent thought, Harry would have wished for death in order to escape the sheer agony. The pain only amplified in the next instant as it moved to encompass every inch of his body even as it moved beyond mere physical pain.

When the pain finally faded to a tolerable ache, Harry found himself sprawled out on the floor of the room with blood leaking from his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and scar. A few feet off to his left, Sortilegus lay flat and unmoving on the floor; the hat's magic having been completely exhausted by the process of removing every single binding that had been placed upon Harry during the course of the past thirteen years. Harry closed his eyes again as he took a shuddering breath that made his lungs ache in remembered pain. He couldn't help but flinch when he felt a warm, wet cloth wipe at the blood staining his face and he opened his eyes to find a worried Dobby hovering over him as he cleaned Harry's face.

"**How do you feel, child?**" Fawkes inquired as he landed on the floor beside the teen and twisted his head back and forth to peer at him with both eyes.

"Like I was trampled by a herd of rampaging hippogriffs for two months straight before the centaur's used me for target practice all night long," Harry hoarsely rasped in response to the question.

"**The pain shall pass in time; your magic should already be soothing your hurts now that it is no longer bound.**"

"Where'd Mr. Hat go? I've got half a mind to yell at him for making the understatement of the year when he told me that removing the bindings was supposed to be a little unpleasant. He said nothing about trying to rip me apart from the inside out."

"**Sortilegus nearly unmade himself to free you of your binds; a little respect would not go amiss for the magic he sacrificed on your behalf.**"

"I didn't know he'd harmed himself for me. Is there anything I can do to help him?" Harry automatically asked once he got over the shock of the Sorting Hat doing something like that for him. "He will be alright, won't he?"

"**He will be fine in a few months. In the mean time, he will sleep.**"

"Oh, I'm glad he wasn't unmade. Will you tell him I said thank you? Since I don't know when I'll be back so I can tell him myself."

"**I will see to it that your message is passed along.**"

"Thank you. What happens now?"

"**I will deliver you to the Children of War. When they demand to know why you have invaded their home after hours; tell them that the time has come for an Evans to Hunt once more. Do make certain that you treat them with respect for not even your heritage will save you should you insult one of their higher ranked individuals. I shall send your bonded Child of Duty to join you once you have left these shores.**"

So saying, the phoenix latched onto Harry's shoulder and engulfed him in a swirl of flames that drowned out all of his senses for several seconds. When the flames receded and he could make out his surroundings once more, Harry found himself lying in the middle of Gringotts Bank with his school trunk and several dusty boxes sitting beside him. Fawkes burst into a commanding song as he launched himself into the air and circled Harry three times before he vanished in a second swirl of flames. Just seconds later, the fourteen year old was surrounded by a forest of deadly spear points held by angry goblins and Harry tasted bile at the back of his throat as the precariousness of his current position slammed home.

"Who dares break into the hallowed grounds of Gringotts in the cold hours before the dawn?" the goblin wearing the fanciest armor out of those present demanded as he waved his spear beneath Harry's nose to impress upon the young wizard the importance of telling the truth.

Swallowing his fear, Harry took a deep breath as he lifted his gaze to meet the angry goblin's glare as he stated, "My name is Harry James Potter and Fawkes the phoenix told me to tell you that it is time for an Evans to hunt once more, Master Goblin."

"Stand down," the goblin ordered and Harry let out an audible sigh when the spear points were redirected up towards the ceiling and most of the goblins scattered back to wherever they had been prior to Harry's abrupt arrival. The goblin in fancy armor then addressed the goblin standing beside him, "Guard; fetch an Inheritance Stone and send it with Curse Breaker Weasley to my office along with the trash that is currently scattered all over the lobby floor." The formidable goblin then turned his attention back to the wizard still partially sprawled on the floor. "You reek of fresh blood; where are you wounded?"

"I'm not."

"Then why do you bleed, human?"

"The Sort… er… uh, that is, Sortilegus, Hogwarts' Sorting Hat, removed a bunch of bindings all at once because he said there wasn't time to remove them one at a time…"

"Multiple bindings? What was it that was bound; mind, magic, body, or soul?"

"Er… all of the above?"

"How many days has it been since the bindings were removed?"

"Um… not more than five or ten minutes… I think," Harry replied hesitantly since he didn't really know exactly how much time had passed since the Hat had finished or even how long the process had taken. "I was a little more hung up on the sheer agony I had experienced during the years it felt like it took for the bindings to be removed and Fawkes didn't say anything about how long it took or how much time had passed since the Hat finished and Sortilegus was beyond answering by that point."

"You remained conscious during the unbinding?" the goblin exclaimed in surprise.

"Was I not supposed to?"

"The pain of breaking multiple bindings has been said to be comparable to experiencing the Cruciatus Curse," the goblin stated as he studied Harry with dark eyes. "Few humans can remain sane after experiencing the Cruciatus for more than five minutes and unbinding every aspect of your being would have taken at least thrice that even if they were stripped from you simultaneously. It would have been kinder to knock you unconscious before stripping the bindings from you."

"I'd much rather experience the pain curse again than to ever have to go through another unbinding," Harry deadpanned as he roughly pushed himself up into a sitting position. "At least I could still think and walk after being Cruciated by Voldemort two days ago."

The goblin arched an eyebrow over that declaration before he asked, "Can you walk now?"

"So long as we don't have to go too far; my legs still feel like jelly."

Harry ended up being carried to the still unnamed goblin's office after two unsuccessful attempts to stand on his own two feet. He was more than a little embarrassed about being carried through the bank by one of the hulking goblin guards but kept his complaints to himself least he offend the goblins. The fourteen year old had barely been set down on a less than comfortable chair when Ron's oldest brother, Bill, entered the office carrying what looked like a stone block while levitating Harry's trunk and all of the dusty boxes that supposedly contained everything that Hogwarts had given to him according to Fawkes and Sortilegus.

"Harry…? What are you doing here? Did something happen up at the school? Oh, Merlin's shorn beard! Your clothes have blood on them! Have you been attacked again?" Bill demanded the moment he saw Harry sitting in the middle of the office. Harry swallowed thickly and dropped his gaze to his knees as his stomach churned with fear and worry while he tried to figure out what to say. "Do you want me to contact Professor Dumbledore to let him know where you are so that he can come get you and take you back to the castle?"

"No!" Harry cried frantically as he scrambled up onto his feet. All three goblins in the office stared at Harry in shock while Bill jumped a bit at the unexpectedly violent reaction. Harry clung to the chair so as not to fall on his face and stared at Bill with haunted eyes as he added, "I can't go back and you can't tell Dumbledore I left because he wants me dead before I turn sixteen."

"What?" Bill demanded in pure shock while the looks on the goblins' faces turned calculating. "Are you sure you're feeling alright? Dumbledore would never…"

"I swear on my magic that Dumbledore wants me dead before my sixteenth birthday because he doesn't want me to get closer to your sister or any other girl because he doesn't want me to start a family," Harry rasped in desperation as tears collected in his eyes. "I heard him and Snape… they've even got my Aunt Petunia in on things… they want her to feed me potions to make my nightmares worse to break down my mental defenses for something called occluemancy lessons or something like that. And… and Snape is supposed to talk Voldemort into killing me before the end of my fifth year."

"Will you show me your memory of the conversation you overheard, human?" the goblin in the fancy armor asked as he stepped forward and gently pushed Harry back down in the chair when it became obvious that Harry was having trouble staying on his feet.

"I don't know how…"

"Curse Breaker Weasley is more than capable of drawing the memory out so that we might view it."

"You aren't going to keep it to make me forget what happened, are you?" Harry asked as he unflinchingly met the goblin's gaze with jaded emerald eyes that shimmered with unshed tears.

"No, he will make a copy of the memory for us to view."

"Okay."

Bill stepped up beside Harry as he drew his wand and Harry flinched the moment the tip of the wand rose up so that it was pointing at him. He relaxed when the older wizard simply placed the tip against Harry's left temple before he instructed, "I need you to focus on the entire conversation you overheard; from the moment it started to the moment it ended. Let me know once you've pulled the memory to the front of your mind and I'll start copying it."

Harry closed his eyes, pulled up the memory as instructed, and murmured a tentative, "I'm ready."

The teen felt something tugging at his mind and then the memory of the conversation between Snape and Dumbledore was being stretched out before it suddenly snapped back into place. Harry jumped at the strange feeling and when he opened his eyes he saw a long silver strand dangling from the tip of Bill's wand; much like the memories he'd seen Dumbledore pull from his mind earlier that year. His memory was then deposited into a smooth stone bowl carved all over with runes.

Harry felt his earlier nausea return as he watched both Bill and the goblin vanish into the pensieve and he prayed that Fawkes hadn't made a mistake in bringing him to Gringotts. The teen then immediately offered the phoenix a silent apology as he knew the magical bird had not meant him any harm; if he had, then Harry would have found himself right back in Dumbledore's clutches. Covering his face with both hands, Harry curled up in the chair he was sitting in and drifted off into a fitful sleep that was wrought with nightmares that twisted his greatest fears together with his worst memories.

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**Translations:** Latin to English

Aboleo Fertilitas – Aboleo (meaning to destroy/do away with/obliterate) and Fertilitas (meaning fertility/fruitfulness); a potions designed to render any _male_ drinker infertile (no known antidote) with a sister potion called Abolea Fertilitas that is designed to render a female drinker infertile. Neither potion will consistently work if taken before maturity.

Sortilegus – soothsayer; I though this an appropriate name for the Sorting Hat given how he often gives warnings during troubled times when he sings his sorting songs.

**Notes:**

Child of Duty – Fawkes's name for House Elves  
Child/Children of War – Fawkes's name for Goblins

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**AN:** _And that's a wrap for now. How many of you were prepared for Snape and Petunia to be half siblings? I wanted to have a unique twist to the Dursley's behavior and Petunia being half a Snape is what I ended up with. I don't think there are that many fics out there where Snape is related to the Evans family, if any. The hows and whys of it will be explained in the next chapter. Anywho, I hope you enjoy the chapter. ~ Jenn_


	2. Inheritance x and x Guidance

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Two: Inheritance x and x Guidance

Harry woke up several hours later, feeling far better than he expected to given how poorly he'd slept. He was more than a little surprised to find that he'd been moved into a different room, that his clothes had been changed, and that he'd been cleaned up without being woken up. The teen pushed himself upright and swung his feet over the side of the bed slash couch that he'd been placed on and brought his hands up to hold his head when the change in position brought a wave of lightheadedness and pain with it. Thankfully, both sensations passed quickly and Harry was able to climb up onto his feet and while he still felt somewhat weak, he no longer hand any trouble staying on his feet.

The door to the room opened just as Harry was contemplating on searching for a goblin to find out where he'd been taken and where his things had been moved. A familiar redhead poked into the room and Bill sighed with obvious relief when his eyes landed on Harry and the older wizard then offered Harry a warm smile as he asked, "How are you feeling, Harry?"

"I'm fine," Harry replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Glad to hear it. Come on, then; my supervisor is impatient to get down to business."

Just a few minutes later, Harry was once more seated in front of the desk of the goblin from before. His things, which he vaguely recalled Bill bringing into the office, were neatly stacked in the northern corner of the room and aside from the dust being cleaned from the boxes, appeared to be untouched.

"Now that you've finally regained consciousness, let's get this over with, human," the goblin growled as he eyed Harry with a calculating gaze. "It is time for you to prove your claim to the Evans' line."

"How do I do that, sir?" Harry asked with a slight frown as he glanced between Bill and the goblin in the hopes that one of them would explain things to him.

"With blood and magic," the goblin answered in a tone that said that Harry should have known that.

Harry nodded jerkily as he reached for his wand out of habit, only for Bill to whisk it out of his hand before he'd even finished palming the handle as he hissed, "Never draw your wand in the presence of a goblin before asking permission."

"Sorry, sir," Harry quickly apologized to the goblin as heat suffused his face over the social blunder he'd nearly made out of ignorance since he hadn't known that drawing his wand in the bank would be a problem.

"I'll excuse your rudeness this time, human," the goblin stated as he waved away Harry's apology. "You'll not need your wand in any case. Curse Breaker Weasley, please strip the wand of any tracking, tracing, and binding spells while I guide the child through the inheritance process."

"Yes, sir."

Harry tried not to cringe when he heard the word strip as he vividly recalled the pain he'd experienced when he'd been stripped of the bindings that had been placed on him. It made him wonder if the magic in the wand would feel pain since there were times when his wand almost seemed to have a mind of its own. Harry's musings were soon interrupted as the goblin seated at the desk began barking out instructions at him.

"Don't just sit there, human; you'll need to step up to my desk to use the stone."

Harry quickly complied, stumbling a bit as his legs protested the sudden need to support his weight. He ignored the slight weakness, to avoid further annoying the formidable goblin practically glaring at him over the top of the desk, as he made his way up to the desk as ordered. The teen then gave the goblin his complete attention as he waited for the next instruction.

"Take this dagger and use it to slice open the palms of both hands. You will then need to allow the blood to pool in both palms before you press your bloodied hands to each end of the stone block at the same time. The moment your bloodied hands come into contact with the stone, the stone will activate and draw upon your magic through your blood. Do not try to fight the pull on your magic; doing so will cause you pain. Do you have any questions?"

"No, sir," Harry replied as he accepted the crystal bladed and bone handled dagger the goblin extended towards him.

His stomach twisted uncomfortably as he shifted the handle of the blade into his left hand while he wrapped his right hand around the sharp side of the blade. Taking a deep breath, Harry tightened his right hand as he pulled the blade free with his left; the razor sharp blade easily slicing through his skin with little effort. Harry refused to cry out as the sharp bite of the self-inflicted wound made itself known just seconds later. He repeated the process with his left hand, his right arm shaking slightly as he struggled to ignore the pain he felt as he gripped the bone handle with his injured palm.

The bloody dagger was set onto a cloth that the goblin spread out beside the stone (to prevent Harry's blood from staining the desk) and Harry cupped his palms as he placed his hands to either side of the stone. Blood trickled down the back of his hand and down his arms as he struggled to hold them steady while he waited for an adequate amount of blood to collect inside of his palms. The second that neither palm could hold even a single drop more, Harry slapped the sides of his cupped palms onto the stone before rolling his palm up onto the flat sides (so as not to spill too much of his blood).

Harry then closed his eyes as he immediately felt a tugging sensation deep within him that was almost similar to the feeling he got each time he cast a spell with his wand. Seconds later, he felt a flood of heat rushing through him instead of the usual thin thread of warmth that he'd come to associate with his magic. He let out a gasp as he wretched his eyes opens to find the stone in front of him glowing gold and throwing off a considerable amount of heat and he felt a thread of fear trace through him as it occurred to him that the stone could shatter beneath his hands. That fear soon passed when nothing more seemed to happen and Harry was soon mesmerized by the brilliant glow as it fluctuated between orange, yellow, and true gold (the affect similar to flickering flames).

The teen probably would have stood there for hours just watching his magic pulse inside of the stone if not for the stone melting beneath his hands to form a glowing tablet covered in runes. The moment his hands were no longer touching the stone due to the change in shape, the flow of magic coursing through Harry abruptly cut off and he sank to his knees as exhaustion immediately set in while it felt like millions of buzzing bees had taken up residence beneath his skin. If he'd looked in a mirror in that precise instant, Harry would have seen hundreds of golden dust motes sparking in the depths of his green irises; a visible side effect that was a direct result of the amount of magic that was still coursing through his very blood.

"Curse Breaker Weasley; please attend to Mr. Potter while I analyze the results of the Inheritance Test."

"Come on, Harry; let's get you up off the floor," Bill murmured as he grabbed Harry beneath the armpits and hauled him up off the floor before he guided the teen back to the chair he'd been sitting in earlier, healed his still bleeding hands, and cleaned the blood from his skin and clothes. The long haired wizard then disappeared for a moment before returning a few minutes later to press a warm mug into his hands. "Drink; it will help wash away the exhaustion you're feeling right now."

Harry complied and nearly gagged on the sweet and sour taste of the drink he'd been given even as he felt his weariness being washed away. The second drink he took wasn't so overpowering, now that he knew what to expect, and he rolled the heated liquid around on his tongue for a moment in an effort to identify what exactly it was he was drinking. He thought he recognized pineapple, raspberry, and something earthy but the other flavors eluded him entirely. After a few more sips he finally gave up trying to pick out the ingredients and spent his time trying to decide whether or not he liked the taste.

"What exactly was that?" Harry asked curiously once he'd finished the last of the drink.

"Mulled Stone's Blood," Bill replied with a small smirk that abruptly reminded Harry of the twins even as he tried not to get sick over the mere thought that he'd just drank some kind of blood. "It's a goblin energy potion made from stone pressed fruits that have been boiled with sea salt, herbs, and a type of moss that only grows in the deepest and dampest of caves along the western coast of Scotland. The resulting syrup is then either mixed with warm goat's milk or goblin grog to make Mulled Stone's Blood or reheated and mixed with goat's milk, butter, and sugar until it caramelizes so it can be poured into molds and cooled to form a hard candy called Stone's Teeth that is very popular with goblin children."

"Oh, why doesn't Honeydukes or the tea trolley on the Express sell Stone's Teeth?"

"Few humans care to sample goblin treats or potions for fear that we would poison them," the goblin answered as he finished doing whatever it was he'd needed to do with the tablet Harry's magic had created from the block of stone.

"Pfft, I'd be far more worried about the sharp and pointy weapons you lot tend to tote around with you," Harry snorted as he eyed the heavy looking axe that was sitting on the goblin's desk. "Poison can be cured with a simple antidote or a bezoar while a body can bleed to death in a matter of seconds depending where you get stuck."

"You do not think that your magic could stop an attacking goblin?"

"Chances are; if you've pissed off one goblin enough that he attacks you, then you've undoubtedly pissed off the entire goblin nation or at least those that were close enough to witness what it was you did when you pissed off the first goblin. So, what good would stopping one goblin do when there is always another dozen or two attacking you from your blind side?" Harry asked right back as he glanced up and arched an eyebrow at the goblin.

The goblin chuckled in response to Harry's remark for a moment before he grew serious once more as he got down to business, "As amusing as it would be to hear some of your other observations and opinions of goblin culture, we have other matters that must be attended to. After studying your Inheritance Tablet, I have concluded that your claim to the Evans' line is valid and that you are the only surviving heir of the Evans Family in addition to being the only surviving heir to the Potter Family."

"That's not possible; shouldn't my cousin Dudley be listed as an heir to the Evans family as well since he is the only son of my mother's sister? For that matter, shouldn't my aunt be listed as an heir as well?"

"No, according to the tablet your mother and your maternal aunt only share the blood of their mother; not the blood of Samuel Evans (your maternal grandfather). Meaning that the only claim your aunt and her offspring have to the name of Evans is through adoption and there are no records that indicate Samuel Evans adopted any child."

"Oh, I suppose that would explain why my mum looks nothing like Aunt Petunia. So, what happens now? Fawkes didn't exactly say how it was you'd be able to help me when he told me that he was bringing me to you."

"There are several things we can do; we can help you sort out the mess that was made of your guardianship, provide you with travel documents and the funds you will need to leave the country, and provide you with the information you will need to become a Hunter."

"Where do we start?" Harry inquired as he sat up straighter.

"Due to your status as the sole heir to the Greater Ancient and Noble House of Potter, in addition to being the sole heir to the once lost Noble House of Evans and the heir apparent to the Lesser Ancient and Noble House of Black through blood, magic, and legal adoption; you are eligible to be emancipated under the Pureblood Preservation Act of sixteen seventy-three due to your current regent and guardian actively seeking to do you harm."

"What exactly does that mean, aside from the fact that I won't need a guardian any longer?"

"It means that you will have to take up the headships of House Potter, House Evans, and House Black (since the previous heir has been deemed ineligible) or appoint a new regent to oversee all of your estates until such time as you are prepared to take control of your families. Furthermore, you will be exempt from the underage restrictions in regards to casting magic outside of school and have the option of continuing your magical education through a self-study program instead of being required to attend a magical institution. Finally, it will grant you unrestricted access to all of the vaults leased to the Potter, Evans, and Black Families (bar the personal vaults of those still amongst the living) and allows you to limit those who might withdraw funds from your vaults."

The goblin paused a moment to allow Harry to digest that information before suggested, "Due to the risks involved if you remain within the British Isles, I highly recommend that you choose a new regent to mange your estates on your behalf until such time as you obtain the skills necessary to protect yourself against assassination or until those that wish you harm no longer pose a threat to your person."

"How do I go about finding a new regent? Are there rules involved or can I just appoint anyone?"

"There are very strict rules that govern the eligibility of an individual to act as a regent to another House," Bill answered when the goblin glanced at the wizard. "It would take far too long to explain the intricacies right now though, so I will give you a basic overview of the qualifications an individual would have to have in order to stand in as the sole regent to all three of the Houses to which you are heir. First, your applicant would have to be a pureblood due to the involvement of the House of Black. Next, your applicant would have to be the Head of House or heir apparent of his or her Family's House due to the status of House Potter as one of the Greater Ancient and Noble Houses. And the last requirement is that your applicant has to be an adult (age twenty-five or older) with a steady income and a clean criminal record."

"Preferably, they'd also be someone that you trust explicitly," the goblin added once Bill finished.

"Well that pretty much eliminates everyone I know," Harry huffed as he slumped back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sirius is on the run because Fudge refused to clear his name despite the fact that he's innocent, Professor Lupin doesn't have a steady job and I don't know if he is a pureblood or not, and everyone else I know and trust is under twenty years old, isn't a pureblood, or are potentially in Dumbledore's back pocket." Harry then frowned as he glanced up at Bill and considered the older wizard. "The Weasleys are purebloods and your father works for the Ministry… do you think he'd be willing…?"

"Dad doesn't qualify; he's not the Head of House Weasley nor is he the heir apparent. If not for that requirement, I'm certain that dad would have been honored to be chosen as your regent."

"Oh… do you know who the Head of House Weasley or the heir apparent is? Your family has been nothing but kind to be since I first met them."

"My Grandfather Septimus is still our Head of House but because of his age he is highly unlikely to be willing to take the regency for three additional houses. I was named his heir apparent eight years ago after Uncle Bilius died and dad refused to accept the heirship for reasons I was never told."

"Would you…?" Harry started to ask only to be cut off by Bill.

"I'm not yet twenty-five."

"You are actually close enough to being twenty-five that your age would be overlooked should you chose to accept the regency," the goblin interjected as he eyed both humans. "Given the dwindling numbers of purebloods due to the high rate of inbreeding amongst the elite; aside from Dumbledore (who is the current regent for the Houses of Potter and Black) you are actually the only one that would qualify to take over the regency outside of Amos Diggory, Xenophilius Lovegood, or Lucius Malfoy. Additionally, your oaths to Gringotts would offer you a measure of protection and anonymity that any other applicant would not have."

"Please, Bill?" Harry pleaded. "I don't know the first thing about managing one estate, let alone three, and the last thing I want is to hand over the control of my estates to one of Voldemort's Death Eaters or someone I don't really know and I've already caused enough pain for the Diggorys."

"Fine," Bill relented with a sigh.

"Thank you, Bill."

The following two hours were then spent signing the paperwork that would finalize Harry's emancipation, remove Dumbledore as regent to the Houses of Potter and Black, install Bill as the new regent for the Potter, Black, and Evans families, and authorize a complete audit for all three of Harry's estates. After that, the three of them went through the boxes of things that Hogwarts had felt Harry would need to make a list of items that had not been included; such as food, drinks, potions, potion ingredients, sturdy clothes, comfortable boots, camping equipment, and a pack to carry everything in. Bill was then sent off to make the necessary purchases while Harry sat down with the goblin to establish a new identity for the teen.

Harry's new passport, identification card, emancipation documents, birth certificate, academic records, immunization records, and medical history bearing the name James Evans on them were completed right about the same time as Bill returned from Diagon Alley carrying several bags. The goblin (whose name Harry had still not been given) then left to withdraw several thousand galleons from Harry's vaults and exchange two thirds of the money withdrawn into several different types of currency while Bill helped Harry organize his things in the five compartment pack-trunk that Bill had purchased for him.

The trunk itself was two feet tall, a foot and a half wide, six inches deep, and carved from high quality walnut with bronze dragon hide shoulder straps and a matching belt that allowed it to be worn on one's back. A set of retractable bronze dragon hide straps allowed him to tie the economy-sized magical tent that Bill had purchased for him onto the bottom of the pack where it would be easy to access. There was also a hidden handle on the left side of the trunk that could be pulled out to make carrying the trunk easier when it was not being used in pack form.

A series of spells cast upon both trunk and straps offered the wearer comfort, protected the trunk (and the trunk's contents) from weather damage and rough treatment, and maintained the weight of the trunk at exactly one and a half stones regardless of what was placed inside. Security Runes had been carved over the surface of the entire trunk (designed to look like decorative carvings) to prevent someone from stealing the trunk or any of the trunk's contents once Harry's blood had been used to activate them. Additionally, the five compartments were further charmed with Undetectable Extension Charms, No-Spill Charms, and a number of other specialized spells to protect the contents of each compartment.

The first compartment was accessed through the top of the trunk (when in pack mode) by lifting the top inch of the pack up. The compartment itself was designed to hold clothes with added charms to prevent mildew from growing on damp clothes, keep out any of the pests that were known to dine on fabrics, and keep the compartment smelling fresh no matter how long dirty clothes were stored inside. Harry tucked all of his hand-me-down clothes and robes in the very bottom of that compartment with his Weasley sweaters, winter cloak, and the rest of his school uniforms going in next and the new clothes Bill had purchased for him were placed on the very top.

The second compartment was accessed by opening the trunk vertically from the top to reveal two sub-sections. The sub-section on the bottom was designed to hold dishes, silverware, cooking utensils, pots, and pans. A number of charms had been woven over that compartment to prevent the dishes from rattling together and cracking or chipping as well as spells to clean and sanitize the dishes each time they were returned to the trunk. It currently held a complete tea service, a brand new set of white ceramic dinnerware, silverware, steak knives, glasses, mugs, cloth napkins, and place mats enough for ten people (which was kind of odd since there was only one of him). There was also a single set of tin camping dishes, a set of cast iron cookware, an assortment of baking pans, a set of stainless steel pots and pans, a trio of ceramic casserole dishes, a wide assortment of cooking and serving utensils, and a number of ceramic serving dishes.

The top sub-section of the compartment was further divided into three sections and dedicated to food storage. All three sections had Stasis Charms and Temperature Regulation Charms placed on them to prevent any of the food placed in them from going bad. The topmost section was maintained at room temperature for storing dried and canned goods, the middle section was kept at four degrees Celsius for those items that required refrigeration, and the last section was set to negative eighteen degrees Celsius for those foods that were best kept frozen (like ice cream). Harry soon had all three sections of that compartment filled with enough food, drinks, snacks, and treats to feed a family of ten for half a year; all of which Bill had purchased for him. He'd later add an assortment of goblin snacks, treats, and candies courtesy of Bill's supervisor.

The third section of the trunk also opened vertically to reveal two sub-sections, only it opened from the bottom instead of the top. Similar to the second compartment where his dishes and cookware were stored, the bottom compartment had spells in place to keep things from rattling around and was designed to hold his potions equipment. The top section had also been spelled with Stasis Charms and Temperature Regulation Charms like its counterpart, however that was where the similarities ended as this sub-section had been lined with shelves that would hold potion ingredients and completed potions. The potions were organized by type (healing potions, antidotes and poisons, enhancement potions, defensive and offensive potions, and prank potions). The ingredients had also been categorized by both type and preparation (fresh and dried plants, animal and insect parts in different states, and inorganic materials in whole, crushed, or powdered forms).

The fourth compartment of the trunk opened up from the left side of the trunk and held two matching sub-sections that each contained a four shelf bookshelf. The entire compartment was intended to be a portable library and as such it was spelled with a number of protective charms and wards that were designed to protect the books from damage. A Resizing Spell had also been cast on each shelf in order to reduce the size of each book as it was shelved in order to increase the amount of books that could be held on each shelf (roughly fifty books per shelf depending on the thickness of the books placed upon the shelf). Additionally, books that were pulled from the shelves would automatically be restored to their full size the moment they left the Resizing Spell's space.

The fifth and final compartment opened up from the right side of the trunk. The left sub-section of the compartment had the same spells and wards as the library compartment, was designed to hold writing materials, had additional space for books, and came with a matching removable lap desk. The other sub-section of that compartment was a generic storage space for those items that did not require any special care during transportation or for prolonged storage. This was also the section of the trunk where most of the items Harry received from Hogwarts were placed (the navigational equipment, the bulk of the training equipment, and the various artifacts that the spirit of the school thought he might need; which included Gryffindor's Sword to Harry's mild surprise).

Harry had just finished transferring the last of the books he'd been given into the library compartment (including the ones that Bill had purchased for him on estate management, basic accounting, and wizarding traditions) when the goblin returned carrying a mokeskin pouch that contained Harry's money and a box holding an assortment of goblin delicacies and potions. The goblin took the time to show Harry how to key the pouch to his blood so that no one else would be able to remove anything from inside of it before he handed it over to the teen. Harry thanked the goblin and promptly placed the rest of his valuables into the secure pouch; his invisibility cloak, his Firebolt, his photo album, and his identification papers (both the original documents for his birth name and the new set created for his alter ego; James Evans) before pulling the cord over his head so he could wear the pouch around his neck.

"Curse Breaker Weasley, did you obtain an owl to provide a secure method of communication for Mr. Potter?" the goblin inquired as he retook his seat behind the desk after taking note of the empty boxes stacked in the corner that were waiting to be disposed.

"No, sir; Harry has a snowy owl."

"Hedwig is gone; Dumbledore said he got rid of her back in September because she was causing him trouble and from the way he said it, I think he had her killed. I don't really want another owl though, it would feel too much like I was betraying her memory," Harry interjected as something twisted inside of him over the thought of trying to replace the beautiful owl he'd considered his dearest friend and companion for the past four years. "I recently bonded with a house elf…"

"House elves are not permitted to enter the hallowed halls of Gringotts," the goblin countered before Harry could even finish his last sentence. "If you are not interested in procuring another owl, then would you consider purchasing a pair of messenger hawks to carry your correspondence instead?"

"A hawk? I didn't know there were trained hawks in the wizarding world. I've never seen anyone use anything other than owls to deliver the post."

"Few wizards in Great Britain or Western Europe choose to use hawks because they are relatively temperamental birds that require far more care and training than an owl. On top of that, most hawks, kites, and eagles are diurnal birds while owls are usually, but not always, nocturnal birds; meaning that an owl carrying a message would be less likely to be seen than a hawk. There is also the fact that muggles were the first to raise and train the smaller hawk breeds for hunting and sport in addition to teaching them to carry messages and most wizards hate to be reminded that they basically copied the idea from a group of individuals that they see as beneath them. That is most especially true of the English community due to the influence of the traditionalist purebloods."

"Can you tell me more about the similarities and differences between a messenger hawk and a postal owl?" Harry asked curiously.

"The magical offspring of both species of birds are born with the ability to recognize and trace the magical signatures of people, places, and things; that ability is what allows them to pinpoint the recipient of the missive they carry, how they navigate between destinations, and track their owners across country. However, hawks have the capacity to memorize twice the number of magical signatures. Additionally, hawks can travel during the daylight hours without attracting the same kind of attention that an owl would, they can travel longer distances (as I mentioned earlier), and the larger species can carry nearly twice the weight as an owl of the same size."

"Where would I buy one?"

"Gringotts breeds and raises several different species and occasionally sell newly mated or working pairs to clients that travel outside of the country regularly or that have personal and business contacts outside of Britain."

"Why do you only sell them in pairs?"

"Since hawks are mainly used for long distance deliveries, it is best to keep two of them so that you will have a greater chance of having one of them on hand if you need to send out an urgent letter. It also means that there is less of a chance of your bird dying of exhaustion due to being forced to travel long distances with little to no rest in between deliveries."

"Oh, that actually makes perfect sense."

"Did you wish to purchase a pair of hawks then?"

"I guess."

"Perfect, do you have any preferences in regards to species or gender?"

"Er… no, not really."

"That will make it easier for me to pick out a suitable pair; did you wish to purchase any supplies for your new hawks at the same time?"

"Yes, please; I don't have any supplies at all for any pets other than my… missing owl, so I'll need everything the birds will require like traveling cages, perches, treats, food, a book or guide on how to properly care for them, and anything else you'd recommend I have on hand for them."

"Of course," the goblin replied as he filled out a purchase order for the birds and the requested supplies. "Which estate do you wish me to bill the purchases to?"

"Um… Evans, I guess; since you pulled the cash from the Black vault and Bill used the Potter vault to pay for the things he bought for me."

The goblin made another note on the purchase order before he held it out to Bill as he ordered, "Curse Breaker Weasley; please hand this off to goblin hawk handler on duty and ask him to see that the order is filled immediately and brought to my office within the next three hours."

"Yes, sir."

"While we are waiting for your purchases to be delivered, we have one final matter that needs to be addressed before Curse Breaker Weasley escorts you to Portsmouth."

"Er, why Portsmouth?"

"That is where the ship you will be boarding is currently docked. I took the liberty of forwarding your application to the Hunter Association's Examination Committee and booking your passage to the examination site while you were packing your supplies."

"Oh, thank you for explaining, sir," Harry replied as he finally drew the connection between Fawkes's references to hunting and the goblin's earlier reference to Harry becoming a Hunter; the teen previously thinking of hunting in terms of game hunting for sport.

"Now that we have cleared that up; we need to discuss what you intend to do about the conversation you overheard between Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, the verbalized threats directed at you that they spoke of, and of the harm they have potentially caused you over your lifetime. The bindings that had been placed upon you would be enough to have Dumbledore thrown in Azkaban if you could convince the Wizengamot to prosecute and convict him. His former status as the regent to two of your Family Houses and subsequent betrayal will also reflect negatively upon him. The blood link he'd established between you and at least one other would be more than enough to see him kissed."

"Blood link?"

"Dark magic involving one unwilling sacrifice, one willing sacrifice, and the blood of an innocent that binds the victim (called the bound) to one or more individuals (called the bonded). The link then allows the bonded to siphon magic from the bound in addition to allowing them to influence the bound's mind by sending him or her visions, nightmares, and mental suggestions. Curse Breaker Weasley transferred the link to the golem we made to take your place to prevent Dumbledore from discovering your defection too soon."

"When did you do that?"

"While you were sleeping off the effects of having multiple bindings removed. The golem has already been returned to Hogwarts and by the time the Blood Link siphons off the last of the magic tied to the construct, you'll be long gone from these shores; so you need not worry about your absence being remarked upon any time soon. Now, have you given any thought to how you'd like to deal with the things that have been done to you?"

"One memory isn't going to be enough for Fudge to go up against Dumbledore on my behalf though, especially not one of my memories; otherwise my godfather would not still be a wanted criminal despite the fact that I have proof that he is innocent of the crimes he of which he'd been accused. Fudge would need to see proof; solid proof that couldn't easily be swept under the rug. Even then, I doubt he'd take me seriously given the fact that he now thinks that I'm a disturbed nutter because of the whole Voldemort reborn fiasco."

"Do you wish to initiate an investigation in order to acquire said proof, Mr. Evans?"

"As your newly appointed regent, I would advise you to say yes," Bill quietly suggested as he returned in time to hear the goblin's question. "So long as Dumbledore retains even a single shred of power, you will be unsafe here in England once Dumbledore learns that you discovered his plans for you. The sooner we unearth enough dirt to pull Dumbledore down off his pedestal, the sooner we can neutralize him so that he can't hurt you or any one else anymore."

"Alright," Harry agreed after thinking about it for several minutes.

"We'll need to start by copying your memories of Dumbledore; especially those where he spoke directly to you or to someone else within your hearing."

Harry nodded even as he focused on his first ever memory of Dumbledore from the night of the Start of Term Feast from his first year at Hogwarts. It would take close to two hours to copy the high number of memories involving Dumbledore from the past four years in addition to all of those involving Harry's yearly misadventures, his less than civil interactions with Snape, and his encounters with the Dark Lord or his servants. He also provided several memories from his pre-Hogwarts years and his summers with the Dursleys.

By the time the final memory had been copied (Harry's meeting with Fawkes and Sortilegus), Harry was feeling wrung out both from the process of copying the memories and from having to relive each memory he was asked to bring forward to be copied.

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**Notes:**

Stone – when used as a unit of measurement for weight, one stone is equal to fourteen pounds. So, one and a half stones would be equal to twenty-one pounds; a rather moderate weight for one to carry upon his or her back and comparable to carrying a toddler or young child on one's back or shoulders.

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**AN: **_For those of you who don't follow my Author's Page, the reason I was not posting as promised was due to another hard drive failure; this time it was my main drive that crashed on me and not my document drive; so I didn't not lose anything but a chapter worth of edit's that I had made. During the time I was without internet (because the old XP drive I snagged from my husband's old PC had a conniption fit over my on board Ethernet, video card, & sound card), I at least was able to edit stuff and write a bit more; so I've got tons of chapters that are ready to be posted._

_I meant to start posting just as soon as I was back online but I had thousands of e-mails I needed to get through, bookmarks to recapture, and a dozen and one other things that just had to be done (like updating my Firefox dictionary so it would stop telling me I was spelling everything wrong; that was annoying). From this point forward, I will endeavor to post the minimum one chapter per day that I had previously promised as soon as I finish setting up all of my settings and whatnot that were lost when my drive crashed; that includes digging out all of my program discs so that I can reinstall the rest of my programs. As before, the story being updated will vary from day to day._

_Lastly, I want to thank everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story and the other new ones I recently posted. And while I've not finished reading all of the reviews I've received because I just haven't had the time, I do appreciate each and every one. I will try to go back and respond or at least read them just as soon as I have time. ~ Jenn_


	3. Duties x and x Decisions

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Three: Duties x and x Decisions

Harry had just finished drinking another cup of Mulled Stone's Blood to wash away the mental exhaustion brought on by the extraction of so many copied memories when a pair of goblins arrived carrying his newly purchased messenger hawks and supplies. The moment Harry saw the birds that had been selected; his jaw practically hit the floor due to them being far larger and far more majestic than he'd expected (the teen had pictured something more along the lines of a pair of merlins or falcons and not the eagles that had been selected).

Both birds were roughly ninety centimeters long, had a wingspan that was easily two meters, and weighed between eight and ten pounds. Their head, chest, belly, thighs, half of the underside of their wings, and the last two to three inches of their tail feathers were solid white while the back of their wings, their flight feathers, the rest of their tails, and backs were a uniform slate-gray that contrasted with their white bodies. They had dark gray (almost black) beaks and talons, featherless lower legs and feet that were covered with tiny dark yellow-gray scales, and their eyes were a dark amber that appeared to be more brown than yellow and filled with unmistakable intelligence. Harry thought they were absolutely perfect despite not being what he'd expected – though his heart ached at what it saw as a betrayal of Hedwig's memory.

"Beautiful creatures, are they not?" Bill's supervisor inquired when he noticed Harry's reaction to the birds.

"They are gorgeous," Harry agreed once he'd schooled his face. "What species of eagle are they? They are eagles, right? Not hawks?"

"Yes, you are correct; they are white-bellied sea eagles. Their non-magical cousins are predominately found living near riverbanks and other large bodies of water along the coasts of India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and Australia. They are highly prized within the goblin nation for their intelligence, fierce nature, strength, and loyalty. The pair I had selected for you is comprised of two three year old unmated males that worked well together during their training. Since you are fairly young and will be traveling for an indeterminate amount of time, I thought it best not to saddle you with a mated pair because you will not be staying in one place long enough for a female to hatch and raise her chicks. They will also have no trouble hunting their own meals during your voyage as they are excellent fishers."

"Will they eat other prey besides fish?"

"Yes; they will eat aquatic snakes, eels, and sea turtles as well as the occasional bird or rodent and have been known to attack and take prey as large as a swan. They have also been known to feed on carrion from time to time."

"What would you recommend offering them as a treat? Do either of them have a preferred prey? And does either male have a name yet?"

"I included a box of Hawker's Treats with the supplies you requested for the birds; the treats are made from whole river trout no longer than six inches that have been smoked and filled with an ounce of crystallized Stone's Blood each. If they have a preferred prey, it is currently unknown as we do not monitor their diets that closely due to the number of birds we raise each year. And no, neither bird has been named; naming a messenger hawk is part of the owner's duty and one of the two methods used to initiate the ownership bond with the bird or birds in question."

"I guess that means I'll need to research a pair of fitting names for them then," Harry mused as he climbed to his feet and approached the goblin carrying both birds.

Harry and the two birds inspected each other in turn for several minutes before Harry fearlessly offered his arm to the slightly larger male and braced himself as the bird climbed up onto his arm. Ignoring the bite of the talons digging into his flesh, Harry reached up to stroke the bird's breast before gently pumping his arm to coax the bird into spreading his wings so he could inspect his flight feathers. Harry then praised the eagle softly as he shifted him up to his shoulder so that he could inspect the other male; making a mental note to pick up a leather gauntlet and shoulder guard to protect himself from their talons.

While he inspected the second male, the first male took to preening Harry's hair (much like Hedwig used to do) and Harry felt a brief pang of anger and pain over the loss of his beloved feathered friend. He quickly suppressed his negative feelings (least he upset either of the fierce birds currently perched upon his person) and focused entirely on his new pair of majestic messenger hawks. Despite hawks and eagles being considered rather temperamental birds that were difficult to tame (if easy to train), the pair currently perched on his shoulder and arm radiated calmness and confidence as they patiently put up with Harry's inspections.

Examination complete, Harry wandered back over to his chair and shifted both birds onto the back of the chair so that he could take the box of food and supplies he'd purchased alongside of the two eagles from the other goblin. Harry thanked both goblins for their services before he packed the new supplies into the fifth compartment of his trunk with the writing supplies since the hawks were intended to be his couriers. Once everything was stored away, he grabbed a couple of the Hawker's Treats before closing the trunk and offering both males a treat at the same time. Harry smothered a snicker of amused disbelief when the pair begged like a pair of fledglings and let out calls that sounded more like the honking of a pair of geese instead of the expected screeching cries of an eagle.

"Do they meet with your approval, Mr. Evans?"

"Yes, sir," Harry replied sincerely as he tore his eyes away from the two birds while suppressing his grief for Hedwig's loss once more. "They weren't what I pictured in my mind when you first mentioned messenger hawks but then again, I was never very good at using my imagination. Anyway, thank you for everything, sir; I really appreciate you helping me."

"You're welcome, Mr. Evans; it has been a pleasurably profitable day for my clan," the goblin stated as he offered Harry a fierce smirk. "If you need our services again, do not hesitate to contact me through Curse Breaker Weasley."

"I will, sir."

"Grab your trunk and collect your new friends, Harry; it's time for me to take you to Portsmouth," Bill instructed as the goblin promptly began ignoring them now that their business had been completed.

Harry quickly shouldered his pack (taking a moment to adjust the straps and belt so that the pack sat comfortably on his back and wouldn't shift needlessly when he walked) before moving the larger male up to sit on his shoulder while he cradled the other male in his arms to balance their weight. He then followed Bill out of his supervisor's office as the older wizard led him through a maze of tunnels that soon had the teen completely lost. When they finally emerged from the warren of corridors some two hours later, Harry was more than a little shocked to find that they were no longer in Diagon Alley or even anywhere near London.

"Where are we, Bill?" Harry asked in confusion as he glanced around at the unfamiliar city they'd ended up in and caught a hint of salt water on the breeze before he turned around to take in the abandoned shack that they'd just exited.

"We're in Portsmouth. The Gringotts' tunnel network runs beneath the entire island, allowing the goblins to travel below ground to almost anywhere. The mining carts could have gotten us here faster but those are restricted to employees only unless you get special dispensation from one of the Gringotts Directors or Managers. Go ahead and let your feathered friends stretch their wings while there is still daylight and we'll grab something to eat before I deliver you to the captain of the vessel you'll be traveling on."

"You heard the man, gentlemen; go terrorize the local seagulls and meet me at the docks later," Harry instructed as he tossed the eagle he'd been cradling in his arms into the air while the one sitting half on his shoulder and half on his pack launched itself into the air at the same time.

Bill snorted and shook his head over Harry telling his eagles to attack the local bird populations before leading the teen to a small hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant not far from the run down shack that hid the hidden entrance to the goblin tunnels. After placing their orders, Bill directed Harry towards one of the corner booths and put up a discreet privacy ward to prevent their conversation from being overheard.

"We have about two hours before you need to board the ship," Bill stated as he propped his elbows on the table. "That gives us more than enough time to discuss what kind of a relationship we're going to have as regent and heir and what duties you wish for me to fulfill while I am overseeing your estates for you."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked with a slight frown as he absently fiddled with an unwrapped straw.

"While your status as an emancipated minor grants you the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as an adult; you are still a minor. As such, my position as your regent means that I am the closest thing to a guardian you have right now since your godfather is on the run and currently under Dumbledore's influence. The question is; how much of a guardian do you want me to be for you? I can be nothing more than your employee with my duties solely revolving around insuring that all three of your estates are running smoothly and making you a profit. I can be something of a mentor and guide or father figure for you; overseeing your magical education and training in addition to running your estates. Or I can be something in between those two extremes."

"I don't think I could ever treat you like an employee; your family means too much to me to do something like that and I've heard far too many stories from Ron and the twins about you. At the same time, I don't want to replace Sirius. I know I don't know him any better than I know you and he can't exactly do anything to help me right now thanks to Dumbledore and Fudge but he's the closest thing to a father I've ever had. I also don't want to offend you or ask you to do more than you're willing to do."

"So, you'd prefer something in between then."

"Yeah."

"That is actually about what I expected you to say based upon what I've learned about you from my siblings and from what little I've learned the few times you and I have crossed paths," Bill stated as he leaned back and temporarily dropped the privacy ward so the waitress could deliver their food and drinks. He restored the ward the moment she left before he continued the conversation, "And for the record, I'm willing to help you in any way I can to repay everything that you've done for my family over the past four years. The only reason why I was hesitant to accept the regency when you first asked was because I barely qualify and have no real experience managing an estate; though my grandfather had seen to it that I had the training I would need when it came time for me to take his place as the Head of House Weasley. Our family just doesn't have the same assets or history that all three of yours do."

Harry nodded in understanding, the fourteen year old at a loss for words in how to respond to that. The two of them sat in companionable silence for several minutes as they sprinkled vinegar over their breaded fish and chips before digging into their food. Once they'd taken the edge off of their hunger, Bill picked up where he'd left off.

"The next thing we need to discuss is how you'd like to handle your post. While your new messenger hawks are fully capable of delivering anything you write personally…"

"They are a bit flashy and will draw a lot of attention because they are not owls," Harry finished with a slight grimace.

"That is unfortunately true; however, there are several ways we can work around that. One way would be to have your incoming post redirected through Gringotts London and screened before it is sent to you via hawk with your replies being sent back to Gringotts where they would be sent off for delivery to their intended recipients by owl. Another way would be to purchase an Owl Post Box to do the same basic thing; only the Owl Post Offices do not offer screening services to protect you from potentially harmful letters or packages. You could potentially use your house elf to make deliveries but he'd be just as obvious as your eagles. The last thing you could do is a full communications black out; meaning you don't send anything to anyone outside of myself or Gringotts."

"The first option sounds the most appealing; if only to prevent howlers from reaching me or getting letters like the one that Hermione got when she ended up covered in bubotuber pus because of Skeeter's stupid article last year. And because my friends would never forgive me if I refused to write to them at all."

"They'll also scan for harmful curses and portkeys," Bill added as he winced in response to the comment on Hermione's experience. "I'll set everything up when I return to London. That should also prevent the winged golem from tracking you now that the tracking charms have all been removed from you and your things."

"Hed… the golem was supposed to be locked up most of the summer; so it probably won't be seen much."

"True but they may try to use it to find you once they learn you've vanished. You won't have to worry about that for quite some time though," Bill assured him before he changed the subject. "What are you planning to do with the house elf you said you'd bonded?"

"Er, I don't know yet. I'm pretty sure that Fawkes said he'd send Dobby to me after I left the country."

"That's good; elf magic can be traced almost as easily as apparation and portkeys, especially if you send another elf to track him or her. You do know that you won't be able to keep your elf with you at all times though, right? You're going to be surrounded by muggles from the moment you board the ship and they'll ask far too many questions if they see him hanging about. In the event of an emergency, he'd be able to get in touch with you quickly and if your life is in danger, he can transport you out of harms way in a pinch. He'll grow bored if you don't give him something to do though."

"Do you think he could help you manage my estates? I mean, there's bound to be property attached to one of the estates right? He could, I don't know; maybe clean them up and make them livable again if they've been empty for long. If that isn't possible, then I suppose I could have him continue working at Hogwarts to spy on Dumbledore and Snape as well as keep an eye on my friends to make certain Dumbledore doesn't harm them because I ran."

"Both of those are excellent ideas and better than anything I was going to suggest. It is possible that some of the properties you inherited already have elves maintaining them as family elves are sometimes bound to the land instead of to a person to prevent the elves from going insane when their current master dies and before their new master takes control of their bond. Having another elf around to help deal with any elf related complications would be helpful and few wizards ever take notice of house elves so they would actually make excellent spies."

"They are also crafty little buggers that know how to wriggle through the smallest of loopholes if you ever make them unhappy. Dobby defied Mr. Malfoy in an attempt to warn me about the basilisk and everything that happened in mine and Ron's second year. I tricked Malfoy into freeing Dobby to repay the favor and then promptly asked him to never again try to save my life since he nearly killed me with a bludger once; hoping I'd leave Hogwarts if I got hurt seriously enough."

"Ron told me about that… wasn't that the same elf that locked the two of you out of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and led to the two of you taking dad's car to Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, I wonder if that car is still running wild in the Forbidden Forest."

"Most likely based upon what Ron told me about the personality it developed," Bill chortled as he finished off the last of his soda. "Anyway, you can't send your elf to me at Gringotts due to the bad blood between the two species but if you can give him permission to answer my call, then I will call him at the first opportunity I have to make arrangements with him to look into your various properties."

"I can do that and I'll also give permission to Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and the twins to call on him as well. Speaking of the twins… did you know that they plan to open a joke store?"

"I was vaguely aware of their dreams to do so; why?"

"I was thinking about giving them the money from the Tri-Wizard Tournament because I don't want or need it. I tried to give it to the Diggorys because I still believe that Cedric was the true winner of the Tournament along with being Hogwarts' one true champion but they refused to accept it when they came to thank me for… for bringing his… him back. Do you think you could… I don't know, help them somehow?"

"Are you asking me personally or are you asking me as your regent to offer them funding on your behalf?"

"The second; I don't know if they'd accept money from me because all Weasleys are proud (which I can respect) but they have also been good friends to me since I joined the Quidditch team in first year. They are also smart and talented and the stuff they've invented is cool and I think we'll need all the laughter we can get now that Voldemort is back."

"Who do you want me to tell them is looking to invest in their shop?"

Harry gave Bill a smirk worthy of the twins as he replied, "Tell them the Son of Prongs is impressed with their pranks and wishes to help them achieve lasting greatness. If they pester you for a name, you can give them my alias so that they won't know it's me; I owe them a prank or two."

"Won't Dumbledore recognize the name though?"

"Ah, but that's the beauty of it; according to the documents that your supervisor forged for me, I'm the seventeen year old bastard son of my grandfather's unacknowledged bastard son that only recently discovered his magical inheritance due to growing up in an orphanage after my underage teenaged mum gave me up for adoption just seconds after my birth. I guess that means I'm my own cousin now. All I have to do is grow my hair out a bit and bleach it a few shades lighter and I'll look different enough that I won't be easily recognized; especially considering the fact that I no longer have that cursed lightning bolt scar."

"If you spend most of your voyage on the deck, the sun should bleach your hair lighter and give you a halfway decent tan; providing you don't turn lobster red and freckle like us Weasleys do."

"Your supervisor said almost the same thing… speaking of your supervisor; why didn't he ever introduce himself? It was weird not knowing his name."

"Goblins will never offer their name to an individual that they consider as weaker than themselves and most goblins consider wizards and witches as the weakest of all creatures regardless of how powerful they are magically; they believe giving their names to the weak weakens them and their magic. I'm actually surprised he deigned to call you Mr. Evans on a number of occasions instead of just addressing you as 'human' like he normally would when interacting with any human not employed with the bank."

"Really? Then why did the teller that saw me and Hagrid that first year tell us the name of the goblin that took us down to my vault?"

"Probably to humiliate the goblin in question and make certain he knows his place. Best to forget you ever heard his name because if you address him by name the next time you see him, he'll resent you even more for remembering that which you didn't earn the privilege to know and he's liable to stab you in the back (both literally and figuratively speaking) if ever given the opportunity."

"Oh, I didn't know that. Why doesn't Binns teach us that kind of information in History of Magic, instead of droning on and on about the various goblin rebellions or the giant wars?"

"I don't have an answer to that as I didn't learn goblin etiquette until I started my apprenticeship at the bank."

"Will you get into trouble for passing on that information to me?"

"No, I was given permission to teach my brothers how to properly interact with goblins since it would reflect badly upon me if my family created social blunders each time they entered the bank. Since I accepted the position as your regent, it is expected that I will extend those lessons to you for pretty much the same reason. I will also be expected to teach you diplomacy, politics, and estate management in order to prepare you for the day you take control of your Houses from me at some point in the future; that was why I purchased you the books I did. It's nice to know that I won't have to teach you proper manners and etiquette though."

"Aunt Petunia was very strict with me; if I didn't behave appropriately or if I embarrassed the family in any way, then I was punished. It was actually pretty easy to know what was expected of me; I was never allowed to do anything that Dudley was. Not that I would want to be like Dudley, anyway," Harry stated matter-of-factly before he changed the topic. "What other duties did you need to discuss?"

Bill gave him a look that let him know he wasn't fooled by the shift in subjects even as he answered, "There are a couple of things… first; how much guidance did you want from me in regards to your education outside of what you will need to know before you accept full responsibility of your estates?"

"I don't know; Hogwarts gave me a ton of books and stuff to help me with that but I haven't really had a chance to look at any of it yet."

"If you'd like, I can provide you with a guide for what you will need to know to pass your O.W.L.s this time next year and answer your questions whenever you get stuck on something. That will give you plenty of freedom to study at your own pace and study those extra subjects that you wish to study."

"That doesn't sound too bad… you aren't going to make me write a bunch of essays, are you?

"Absolutely not!" Bill quickly assured Harry as his eyes bugged out. "The last thing I want is to have to read and correct a bunch of homework again now that that I'm out of Hogwarts."

Harry snickered and nearly snorted soda up his nose the moment he saw the look on the older wizard's face. He was still grinning a minute later when he asked, "So what exactly would be on the guideline?"

"It will basically be a rough guide of the spells and theories that covered on the O.W.L. Exams and a list of those spells that will earn you extra credit in the wanded subjects. The O.W.L. Exams haven't been changed or updated in over forty years, so my notes from when I was in my fifth year will be adequate enough to base the guide from or I can snag Percy's notes since his were probably more extensive than mine. I can also give you a list of the books you will need for each subject and if you don't have them, I'll purchase them for you and send them to you with a hawk."

"How will I take my exams though? I mean, it's not like I can just waltz into Hogwarts after skiving off for the entire year and expect to be allowed to sit my exams."

"Once you think that you're ready to take the exams, you can let me know and I will make arrangements through the Wizarding Examinations Authority for you to take them at the testing facility that is closest to wherever you are at the time. If I contact the board now and put forward your application to independently take the O.W.L.s, then we'd be able to get you in faster depending on where you are and how far you are from the nearest facility. That would also firmly establish you as an independent student sooner rather than later and help back up your back story of only recently being introduced to your magical heritage. They may even send you study material in order to help prepare you for the exams."

"That would probably be helpful. Are there a lot of witches and wizards out there that are taught at home?"

"Yes, roughly two out of every three magicals within Britain are either tutored by a parent or relative, teach themselves around their work schedules, or take an Owl Post Course (commonly referred to as OPC). Only those with a power rating of five hundred or higher and whose parents can afford the tuition are invited to attend Hogwarts. Then there are the legacy students that automatically receive a spot regardless of their power rating (providing they aren't classed as squibs); students whose families have been attending Hogwarts for two or more generations or have a family sitting on the Board of Governors. And finally, there are a limited number of scholarships offered to promising halfbloods and muggleborns whose power ratings are seven hundred or higher."

"How do they measure one's power rating?" Harry asked curiously as it was something he'd never even heard of before.

"There are several ways; the first is through a diagnostic spell when a magical child is born or is first examined by a healer (which is inaccurate since a child's core will grow over time and the spell is ineffective on mature wizards because their cores are too large to register properly). The second is through the network of magical sensors spread throughout the country that monitor outbursts of accidental magic or large discharges of intentional magic; that is how most muggleborns are discovered. Another way, is to use a specialized rune based ward that measures the power ratings of everyone that passed through the ward line; Ollivander's has one around his shop as he needs to know the power rating of his customers in order to get an idea of which woods and cores will best suit each person."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"I pretty much said the same thing when I first studied the wards covering the various stores in Diagon Alley as part of my apprenticeship as a Curse Breaker. There are only two other ways to measure a person's power rating; one is to have the individual cast their most powerful spell at a Rating Orb but this method is the least accurate method of rating a wizard's magic since the wand being used can skew the results (that is especially true when the wand is a poor match for the wizard using it). And the final method is to perform a Goblin Inheritance test; this method is the least utilized (due to the blood involved) despite it being the most accurate method of determining a witch or wizard's full potential."

"How does that work?"

"The Inheritance Stones are not just random blocks of stone, they are specially crafted artifacts made by goblin artisans deep within the bowels of Gringotts. I've never been allowed to study one of the stones, so I don't really know all that much about how they are made or how they work, but from what I've learned over the years, the stones measure the size, strength, and density of a person's magical core by creating a feedback loop between the stone and the person through his or her blood. The person's power rating is then calculated based upon the length of time it takes for test to run its full course, the amount of change the stone undergoes through the testing process, the highest temperature the stone reaches during the process (including how quickly that temperature is reached and how long it is maintained during the process), and the level of magic present within the person's blood at the end of the test. That information is all logged on the stone through the same spells and wards that determine your magical ancestry."

"It sounds rather complex."

"It is; the arithmancy involved is beyond even my current level of mastery," Bill admitted with a wry grin.

"Almost makes me wish I'd have taken Arithmancy as one of my electives instead of letting Ron talk me into taking Divination but at the same time it makes me glad I didn't because I can well imagine the headaches it would have caused me. I can't help but be curious about what my power rating might have been though."

"It was over fifteen hundred but I have no clue what the exact number is since I wasn't privy to that knowledge," Bill quietly stated as he studied Harry with an unreadable look. "The stone you used in your test was transformed into obsidian and melted into a tablet in less than ten minutes; it takes a power level of at least nine hundred to alter the shape of the Inheritance Stone over the course of an hour and a level of at least twelve hundred to alter the crystal structure of the original stone over the same period of time. Your magic generated temperatures comparative to that of an active volcano almost the instant you began the test and maintained that temperature for over ten minutes as the tablet didn't cool until after it had become separated from your magic."

"But I've never been that strong! I've always had to struggle with even the simplest spells."

"I would imagine that the bindings that had been placed on you were part of the reason why you found it so difficult to perform the various spells that you were taught. It wouldn't surprise me if removing those bindings created a flood effect in your core which would have boosted your power levels either temporarily or permanently. The only way to know for certain would be to have you retested in a year's time to see if there are any changes in your power levels. The fact that you are still so young will play a factor in your power levels too, as your magic has not matured; meaning that you could potentially grow stronger over the next eleven years."

"Eleven? But I'll be seventeen in three years…"

"Reaching the age of majority is not the same as reaching magical maturity; a wizard's core won't settle until he reaches his twenty-fifth birthday. In other words, once a wizard reaches age twenty-five his magic is as strong as it will ever be and there is no more room for growth or change. That doesn't mean that he has reached his full potential, just that his full potential has been set."

"Oh. That was something else I didn't know."

"It is not something that is taught at Hogwarts; my siblings and I were taught wizarding traditions on the knee of our grandfather as soon as we reached age five. We've gotten far off track though and we don't have much time left before you need to be at the docks. Luckily, there are only a couple of other things we need to discuss. First; how much leeway are you willing to give me in regards to your investments? Do you want me to just maintain and monitor the current investments once the audits have been completed or do you want me to get rid of those investments that are either making you no money or costing you money and add new investments?"

"I don't know… maybe start by just monitoring and maintaining the investments for now and do research on the ones that went bad to find out why they went bad before deciding to cut my losses? I don't like the idea of losing money but I also don't want someone else to suffer because we cut off their only income due to things out of their control; such as poor decisions made by Dumbledore. Oh, and don't forget to invest in the twins' joke shop; you can use all three estates because my godfather would want to encourage another generation of pranksters. If we can get him out from under Dumbledore's thumb, I bet Sirius would have tons of great ideas he'd be willing to let the twins use too."

"I won't forget about Fred and George; I'll be seeing them in a couple of days and can approach them then. I will also deal with the rest of the investments accordingly and keep you updated on my findings so that you can be involved in the decision making process. That actually ties in with the last item we needed to discuss. How often would you like me to send you reports on your estates and investments?"

"Um… once a month, unless something urgent comes up? That way I don't tire out my new eagles."

"That would be acceptable as it gives me plenty of time in between reports to get other things done. Would you be opposed to sending me regular updates in return?"

"Reports on what?"

"The places you've been to or where you are going so at least one person knows where you are in case of an emergency and so I will know where you are in relation to the world wide testing centers when it comes times to schedule your O.W.L. Exams. I also would like to have a progress report on your training every now and then to make certain you aren't stuck or slacking off too much."

"I think I can do that."

"Perfect, let's toss out our rubbish and get you to the docks then."

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**Notes:**

Goblin Names – Yeah, I know that a good number of FanFictions out there have the goblins being awed and shocked at having a wizard recognize them and remember their name but I wanted to make the goblin culture in this story a bit different and try to break free from that particular cliché (since I have more than enough other clichés present). In this case, my goblins are not going to be pleased with anyone that remembers their names unless they gave those individuals permission to call them by name and it will take more than mere politeness or common courtesy to gain their respect.

The reaction of Bill's goblin supervisor and his treatment of Harry towards the end of their meeting will be explained later in the story, though I'm sure that most of you can probably guess that it has to do with who Harry is related to and just how much power Harry has at his fingertips. And yes, my Harry is powerful. I'm going to try not to make him god-like but he will be strong; he has to be if he's going to go up against Voldemort, Dumbledore, and all of their little minions at some point in the story. There're also all of the insanely strong Hunters and criminals to consider. =)

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**AN: **_Finally, these first three chapters were important to set the background for the story but they were kind of tedious since it was all information and actions that are overdone in FanFiction (for the most part). The next chapter, which will be up in two or three days, will finally introduce a Hunter x Hunter character and see a bit more character development for Harry. I will try to respond to all of the reviews before then but I can't make any promises as I'm going to read/respond to all of my reviews story by story and start with the Fics that have the most reviews to sort through first so I can get them out of the way. ~ Jenn  
_


	4. Failed x Intimidation x Tactics

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Four: Failed x Intimidation x Tactics

Harry and Bill arrived at the docks just as the sun was sinking below the horizon and the fourteen year old stared around at the various sail boats, barges, and ships that littered the shipyard. His attention was soon drawn up to the sky when he recognized the undignified honking call of his new eagles in time to watch what he thought was one of his eagles flip itself upside down to catch hold of a seagull by its feet. The two birds then tumbled towards the water and Harry's heart rose up into his throat as he feared his new eagle would be injured when it crashed only to witness the eagle right itself at the last minute and release the seagull before shooting back up into the sky.

A solid thump was then heard as the seagull crashed into the hull of a ship and Harry palmed his face when he realized that his eagle had just effectively pranked the seagull. Another thump and a chorus of raucous honking let him know that the other male apparently didn't have an ounce of dignity either. Smothered laughter coming from the redhead standing beside him let him know that Bill had witnessed the entire thing as well.

"I'm half tempted to name them Fred and George but I'm certain that that would only make things more confusing in the long run," Harry quipped as he shook his head and glanced up at the still laughing man beside him.

"You did order them to terrorize the local flocks before you turned them loose," Bill laughingly reminded Harry as two more thumps rang out back to back.

"I didn't expect them to be feathered incarnations of your most menacing brothers or I would have been more careful in how I worded my orders."

"Oh, I don't know; it certainly looks and sounds like they are both enjoying themselves," Bill pointed out as yet another pair of thuds rang out followed by the angry cries of more than a few seagulls that were soon drowned out by the twin honking calls of the two Sea Eagles.

Harry huffed and shook his head before he brought his hand up to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle that cut through the noise of the agitated seagulls and caught the attention of the mischievous eagles. The two large birds of prey let out one last honking call (as if to taunt the seagulls further) before they dove down towards Harry; both of them pulling up at the last second to gently land on Harry's outstretched arm and his trunk pack. The two birds immediately began preening themselves with smug superiority as soon as they'd made themselves comfortable on their perches.

"I had originally planned to give you both dignified names befitting the majesty of your species but after that undignified display of amusing antics, I find it impossible to see either of you as anything but pranksters. So, I'm going to call you Flip and Flop instead in honor of your capture and release skills."

Both birds stilled and quietly honked at one another as they inspected Harry closely before they ruffled their feathers and resumed their grooming; the names he'd chosen had been accepted. Harry wondered if he would later regret naming the two birds with such a frivolous names. The memory of watching one of the eagles catch hold of a seagull before plunging downwards to 'throw' the seagull into the hull of a ship made him snort; their new names fit them to a tee.

Bill continued to laugh as he led Harry through the maze of docked boats and ships until they reached an old tri-masted, square-rigged carrack that looked as if it had been pulled straight off the pages of a history book. It also brought to mind the ship that the Durmstrang students had arrived at Hogwarts in; though this one appeared to be in far better condition than the Durmstrang ship. Painted in bold black letters on the bow of the ship was the word Kaijinmaru; which Harry assumed was the name of the vessel.

"Ship ahoy!" Bill called out loudly as they came to a stop beside the ship.

Less than a minute later, an old man wearing a captain's hat leaned over the side of the ship and demanded, "Who are you and what business do you have with the Kaijinmaru?"

"My name is William Weasley and I recently booked passage for my charge on your vessel; I'm here to insure he makes it aboard before you set sail," Bill called back as he clapped his hand on Harry's back and pushed him up so that the man could get a clear view of the teen.

"Do the two menaces perched upon your person belong to you, gaki?"

Harry scowled in response to the insult directed to his eagles (despite the fact that he secretly agreed with the man's assessment of the two birds) and the unfamiliar word that he'd been called even as he replied, "Aye, that's right; and they go where I go."

The man appeared taken aback for a moment before he began laughing uproariously as he disappeared from view. Two minutes later, the man reappeared holding a thick bundle of rope and wooden slats and instructed, "Mind your noggins, I'm dropping the ladder!" The man then pushed the bundle over the side of the ship where it unwound to reveal a rope ladder with wood slats for steps. "Climb on aboard you scalawags; so's we can hold a proper conversation without talking over the side of my ship."

"After you, James," Bill insisted as he grinned down at the shorter wizard.

"Scalawags and rapscallions first; so, I guess that means you, Flip and Flop," Harry quipped as he tossed Flip (the smaller of the two males that was once again perched in his arms) into the air before he shooed Flop off his pack to join Flip in the air. "Go find yourselves an out of the way place to sit and behave yourselves."

Freed of his passengers, Harry scuttled up the rope ladder with an ease born from years of practice climbing up flimsy trellises and wobbly picket fences to escape his cousin and his cousin's gang in addition to three years of Quidditch training spent balancing on a thin shaft of wood. It helped that Harry didn't weigh more than six stone due to how much weight he'd lost during the course of the year because of the stress he'd been under after being forced into participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

He reached the top of the ladder in record time and easily tossed himself over the rail to land lightly in the deck; any fear of heights or falling he'd ever had long since fading thanks to the time he'd spent on a broom (and the number of times he'd been knocked off or fallen from one). As he straightened up, Harry took the time to study the man he assumed was the captain of the ship in the last rays of the fading afternoon sun. The man had a white bristle beard and mustache that covered half of his face, the bulbous red nose of a career alcoholic, and a smoking pipe in one hand. He was wearing a red vest trimmed with black and white checkers over a white canvas shirt with a bronze stripe around the neckline, gray breeches, and a pair of brown boots.

By the time he finished his inspection, Bill had joined the two of them on the deck and the older wizard stepped forward to offer his hand to the captain. Harry quickly tuned out the conversation between the two men as he turned his attention to the ship's main deck to study the ship; this was his first time aboard a proper ship after all (the rowboat Uncle Vernon had used to get them to the isolated shack or the ones used to escort the first years across the lake not counting in Harry's mind). His eyes were soon drawn up to take in the rigging lines (that looked more like a tangled mess of ropes to Harry) before his gaze landed upon the crow's nest at the top of the mainmast where both of his eagles were currently perched.

Harry's attention was drawn back to the two men conversing beside them at that point as his ears picked up the sound of his alias being spoken.

"… James in your capable hands," Bill finished and Harry frowned for a moment in confusion before he realized that Bill was getting ready to leave as the wizard turned to address him. "Be careful out there, James, and don't forget to write to me if you need anything at all; even if you just need to vent."

"I will and I won't," Harry replied as he gave the redhead a small smile. "Thank you, for everything, Bill; it means a lot to me that you were willing to hear me out and help with… well, everything really."

"You're welcome, kiddo."

Bill hopped over the side of the ship at that point (ignoring the ladder completely) and Harry rushed to the rail just in time to see the redhead land on the deck. Bill then looked up and waved one last time to Harry before he walked away without looking back and Harry felt a thread of panic race through him over the idea of traveling alone in the company of nothing but strangers before a wave of excitement swept it away as the knowledge that he was nearly free hit him.

He was soon to be free of his overbearing and borderline abusive relatives, free of the choking weight of his fame as the Boy-Who-Lived, and free of Dumbledore's assassination plots.

The fourteen year old let out a whoop of pure joy as he jumped into the air and punched the sky with his fist. He probably would have continued dancing around for a bit if not for the sound of laughter abruptly reminding Harry that he was not alone and he turned to face the captain as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and fought the rising blush that was painting his face red.

"Come on, lad; I'll give you a proper tour of the ship since it's obvious that this is your first time aboard a ship."

Harry spent the next hour dogging the captain's heels as the man gave Harry a complete tour of the ship along with a crash course on ship anatomy and nautical terminology. He also introduced Harry to almost all of the crew (bar those that had not yet returned to the ship and those that were sleeping). The man then showed Harry to the berth where he'd be sleeping alongside a number of other Hunter applicants and left him to stake a claim on a place to sleep after passing along the news that dinner would be served in the ship's mess in a half an hour.

Harry felt only slightly uncomfortable as he studied the various men (and occasional woman) spread out throughout the large room he'd been led to. Most of the other applicants dismissed him as insignificant (and therefore not a threat) and promptly ignored him while the rest either eyed him with open hostility or glee (the former seeing him as an annoyance or a potential rival while the latter saw him as an easy target). Lifting his chin just the slightest bit in response to the challenge he was now faced with, Harry squared his shoulders and drew upon the Gryffindor courage inside of him that had allowed him to face Voldemort and twenty-nine Death Eaters* just three days ago.

He then boldly walked through the lounging applicants towards the only unoccupied corner near several haphazardly stacked crates of fresh fruits. He was stopped only once by a skinny man wielding a knife stepping into his direct path and Harry glanced at the slightly rusted and pitted blade of the dagger before he glanced up to meet the man's cruel brown eyes. Their staring contest lasted for a full five minutes before the man broke the silence in sheer frustration when Harry didn't cower or look away, "I'm going to give you to the count of five to get off of this ship and then I'm going to gut you like a fish."

Harry tilted his head to one side, crossed his arms over his chest, and gave the man a level two Snape Sneer (the one that said you are currently wasting my time and it is making me extremely unhappy) as he retorted, "How droll, a death threat delivered at knife point. Sadly, you're going to have to take a number and get in line behind the other forty-seven people that would love to dance upon my broken and bloody corpse. Now, if you'll excuse me; I have a tent to set up before supper is served and I will need time to pop up topside to fetch my companions from the masthead before we eat."

A number of the other applicants openly gaped at Harry while a few of the others either sneered or snorted in amusement over his rather blasé attitude in response to the threat. When the man blocking his way didn't move, Harry clicked his tongue in annoyance before he uncrossed his arms and propped his hands on his hips as he switched from the level two sneer to a level three Snape Glare. The one that said you've just annoyed me further and if you don't remove yourself from my presence post-haste, then I am going to hurt you in new and creative ways; never let it be said that Harry learned nothing from the acerbic man and the man's glares and sneers were easily memorized (he used them that often).

The man fumbled and dropped his knife as he took a hasty step backwards and Harry snagged it out of the air as if it was a snitch and deftly offered it back to the man, hilt first. His would be attacker cried out in shock before he bolted out the door; he wouldn't be seen again. The man had been nothing more than a coward and a bully though; targeting Harry solely because of the teen's short stature had made it appear as if he was an easy target. Harry would later assume that the man had jumped ship while they were still parked beside the pier.

Harry sighed and stared at the shoddy dagger in his hand before he simply tucked the blade into his back pocket and continued towards the corner he intended to claim as his (he would clean it up and repair it later since a dagger could be useful to have on hand). No one else from amongst the current group of applicants would bother him from that point forward; he'd proved himself capable of taking care of himself despite the fact that he'd actually been blustering and bluffing. His feathered companions would also factor in on the other passengers' decision to leave him alone as the fierce birds would spend more than seventy-five percent of their time perched on or near Harry throughout the entire voyage.

The teen wasn't even considering the ramifications of his actions at that moment as he finally reached what would be his corner of the ship for the next six months and began whistling softly as he took off his pack-trunk, unstrapped the tent from the bottom, and began setting up the small one-man tube tent. He secured the lead ropes for the tent beneath the crates that were stacked near the corner; shifting the heavy wooden boxes around to give himself a bit more room and lesson the chances that the crates would come crashing down on his tent. He'd later apply sticking charms to the crates to hold them in place the moment he had the communal berth to himself for a few minutes.

Once the tent was set up, Harry dropped down onto his hands and knees and grabbed hold of his pack as he crawled inside of the magical tent and immediately stood up inside of a small fully furnished flat. A smirk crossed his face over the fact that he had far more room inside of his little tent than the rest of the applicants had outside of it. Leaving his trunk beside the door, Harry set out to explore the tent that Bill had purchased for him.

The room the tent opened up onto was a small sitting room carpeted with a thick brown shag carpet, cream colored walls, and furnished with a matched set that included one couch, one loveseat, two armchairs, a coffee table, two end tables, two floor lamps, and two wall sconces in a mixture of dark brown upholstery, pale oak frames, and polished brass trim. Off to the left of the sitting area, a small kitchen consisting of a short three-foot counter section, a small two-burner stove, a deep sink, two wall sconces, and pale floor tiles.

The kitchen and sitting room were separated by a five foot long half-wall that was topped with a countertop bar that could comfortable seat three people if they weren't very big. There were two bar stools stored beneath the bar that matched the dark brown, pale oak, and brass theme of the sitting room furniture. In the wall of the sitting room just a few feet away from where the dividing wall separated the kitchen from the sitting room there was a door that opened directly into the flat's only bedroom and attached bathroom.

The floor was covered with the same rich brown carpeting that was in the living room while the walls were pale green with the bottom half paneled in pale oak. The queen-sized four poster bed, twin nightstands, floor lamps, wall sconces, and wardrobe were all part of the same set as the sitting room furniture and took up roughly one third of the floor space in the bedroom. The door to the bathroom was to the left of the bedroom door; the bathroom sitting directly behind the kitchen. Inside of the bathroom, Harry found a shower stall, toilet, sink, a mirrored medicine cabinet sitting directly over the sink, and a wall sconce to the right of the door.

Over all it was just perfect for Harry's needs and far larger than the bedroom he'd been given by the Dursleys (both his cupboard under the stairs and the smallest bedroom upstairs). The best part about the tent was that Harry was the only one that could get inside thanks to the security wards that Bill had set up for him on the entrance earlier. Deciding that he could set up Flip and Flop's perches and unpack his clothes later, Harry left his pack-trunk inside of the tent and crawled out of his hidden flat so he could make his way up onto the deck in order to collect his eagles. As he made his way to the exit, Harry noted that more than half of the applicants had already left (either to get some fresh air or to seek the promised meal in the mess hall).

Harry quickly made his way up to the deck and whistled for Flip and Flop the moment he was standing beneath the stars. Flop dropped down first and reclaimed Harry's shoulder while Flip dropped down to land on Harry's left arm a heartbeat later; the teen wished to keep his wand hand unoccupied in the event that he needed to defend himself from an attack (Harry still feeling slightly on edge after his earlier confrontation). Once both birds were settled, the young wizard made his way back down below decks to the mess hall where his entrance caused a slight commotion when those already inside of the dining hall caught sight of the large birds perched upon the rather short teen.

Long used to being stared at for one reason or another, Harry ignored the eyes on him as he made his way towards where one of the members of the crew were currently dishing up bowls of a thick stew for the passengers while another handed out fresh rolls and mugs of gently steaming liquid. As he reached the end of the line, Harry sent Flip to secure him a seat away from the rest of the passengers before he collected a tray and napkin wrapped bundle of silverware. The line moved fairly smoothly (unlike the lunch lines he recalled from his primary days) and Harry was soon standing across from the man dishing up the stew.

"Would you like a second bowl for your friend there?" the man asked as he pointed his chin at Flop, who was still perched on Harry's shoulder.

"No thank you, sir; I'll share my bowl with them if it turns out they are hungry since I'm almost certain they would have caught a bite or two in between tormenting the local seagull flocks earlier."

The sailor snorted in amusement as he grinned at Harry before turning to serve the next person in line. Harry had a small smirk on his face as he recalled seeing his eagles prank the seagulls before he moved over to the man handing out the rolls and what turned out to be mugs of mulled cider. Harry accepted a mug and asked for an extra pair of rolls to sop up the stew gravy and in case Flip and Flop decided they wanted to share his food.

Harry then made his way between the two long tables that occupied the room to the far side of the right hand table where Flip was perched on the section of table he'd claimed for Harry. Harry nearly tripped over his feet as Flop unbalanced him when the larger male launched himself off of Harry's shoulder to join Flip on the table and Harry eyed the two birds for a moment. He then sat down on the short bench that was placed at the end of the table so that he was seated next to where the two eagles were perched to better keep an eye on the troublemaking pair.

Both birds showed an immediate interest in Harry's food the moment he'd set the tray on the table and Harry was secretly glad that he was still somewhat full from his earlier meal otherwise would have regretted turning down the extra bowl of stew he'd been offered. Harry's face burned red when the honking calls of the two eagles echoed through the mess hall as both birds begged for food the moment Harry stabbed a piece of beef with his fork (much as they had when he'd offered them their treats earlier.

"Keep making a racket like that while we're inside and people are going to start calling you sea geese instead of sea eagles," Harry admonished even as he offered the bite on his fork to Flip. As soon as the smaller male pulled the meat free, Harry speared another piece and held it out for Flop. "Besides, you don't have to beg; I was already planning on sharing with you. I suppose this means that the two of you were too busy playing to do any hunting?"

Harry got the impression that both birds were feeling a bit sheepish over the accuracy of his statement as they shifted on their perch for a moment while avoiding making eye contact with the wizard. The teen snorted and shook his head even as he continued to pick out the thick chunks of meat from the stew to offer them to the pair while he occasionally ate a few of the vegetables. Once the meat was gone, Harry ripped one of the rolls in half and soaked both halves with the thick gravy before offering one to each bird. The wizard then had an entire three minutes of peace in which he could eat a bit more of the stew before the eagles were silently begging for more.

He ended up splitting the remaining two rolls between the two birds since they appeared to be far hungrier than he was and while he knew he had plenty of supplies for them back in his trunk, he also knew that sharing his food with them was yet another part of the bonding process. Harry couldn't help but recall how much Hedwig had seemed to enjoy sharing his bacon and toast with him and the teen's mood plummeted once more when he remembered that the bond he'd shared with the white owl was what prompted Dumbledore to dispose of her at the start of his most recent school year.

A rock settled in Harry's stomach as everything that had happened over the past three days hit him hard and he shoved his tray out of the way as he propped his elbows on the table before he dropped his head down and threaded his fingers through his hair. The fourteen year old practically shook beneath the weight of guilt he felt over being responsible for Cedric's death and Voldemort's rebirth on top of the terrible discovery that the man he'd once seen as a mentor and grandfather was just as determined to kill him as the Dark Lord that had murdered his parents when he was just a baby.

Part of him wondered who the hell he'd pissed off in a past life to earn such a crappy life this time around while the rest of him railed against the unfairness of it all.

It was only sheer willpower that kept Harry from giving voice to the fury filled scream he could feel twisting in the depths of his stomach as he tried to regulate his breathing in order to bring his emotions back under control so as not to have a mental breakdown fueled with explosive accidental magic right then and there in full view of who knew how many muggles.

Eventually, Harry calmed himself and he relaxed the hold he had on his hair and slowly sat up to discover that he was the only one still in the room aside from the crew member that was collecting dirty dishes and carrying them back to the galley so that they could be washed. A quick glance at the two male eagles revealed that the birds had both fallen asleep perched on the edge of the table and unlikely to cause any trouble if Harry chose to lend a hand in cleaning up. The fourteen year old then allowed long ingrained habits to take over in order to avoid thinking about everything that was bothering him as he robotically climbed to his feet and moved down the table to start stacking and collecting trays, cups, and bowls that had been left on the tables by inconsiderate and lazy applicants.

"You don't have to do that," the crew member stated when he noticed what Harry was doing.

Harry paused with his hand outstretched towards another tray as he glanced over his shoulder towards the man. Harry took in the blue bandana tied around the man's red tinted brown hair, the yellow bandana tied around his neck over top of his orange shirt, and the tan breeches he wore with a brown belt to hold them up. The man looked to be no older than twenty-one, possibly twenty-two years old, and reminded Harry of an older version of a young and clumsy Neville Longbottom.

After the short inspection, Harry met the man's light green eyes as he replied, "It's alright; I don't mind and I don't really have anything better to do at the moment."

"Are you a new member of the crew then?"

"No; just a passenger… and an applicant, I suppose."

"Oh, then you _really_ don't have to help me…"

"And I _really_ don't mind helping you," Harry countered as he resumed collecting trays. "In fact, you're helping me more than I'm helping you by allowing me to help you."

"Huh…?"

"It's true… I'd be bored to tears right now if you weren't letting me help you clean up."

The crewman let out a short laugh in response to Harry's somewhat silly declaration but he didn't attempt to dissuade Harry from helping him a third time. The two of them worked in companionable silence to the background music of plinking metal trays, silverware, cups and bowls for several minutes before the crewman spoke up once more to introduce himself to Harry.

"I'm Katzo."

"My name's… James," Harry offered in return after a false start when he almost gave his first name instead of his cover name.

Once the dishes had been collected and delivered to the galley, Harry and Katzo wiped down the long tables that were bolted to the floor. After that, they folded the heavy benches that were attached to the tables with hinged brackets (to prevent them from shifting during storms) up onto the tables so that they could sweep up the food that had been spilled on the floor over the course of the meal. Harry left Katzo to finish the rest of the clean up by himself at that point when the long and rather emotional day finally caught up with him. After bidding the man goodnight, Harry collected his dozing birds and made his way back to the berth he shared with the other applicants.

There were a few grumbles from those applicants that were still awake when Harry slipped into the room with his companions (the applicants now well aware of the birds' loud and annoying calls thanks to the demonstration earlier in the mess hall) but Harry didn't even hear them through his exhaustion. He crossed the room quickly to crouch in front of his tent before crab walking into the interior (the two eagles perched on him making it somewhat difficult to enter the low doorway). The moment he was all the way inside, Harry straightened up and shifted the birds to the back of the couch so he could set up their perches and water dishes.

Their perches turned out to be more along the lines of a small tree instead of a real or artificial branch or post and made from large sections of driftwood. Each one stood approximately four foot tall, had a diameter of at least one foot, and had at least one fork on the trunk about halfway down that stuck out and up for about a foot. The short section of the trunk that branched out on both perches had been cut and hollowed out in such a way that their water bowls would fit into a bowl shaped depression on the end of the branch with a heavy brass perch on the outer edge of the branch's stump.

At the very top of each trunk there was rather messy nest made from twigs and long ropes of washed, dried, and magically preserved green and brown seaweed. The perches were mounted inside of planters that were three feet long, three feet wide, two feet deep, and filled with gravel and beach sand that smelled of sea salt. More long ropes of seaweed were wrapped decoratively around the trunks.

Additionally, the perches had been charmed to repel harmful insects (such as ticks, mites, fleas, and beetles whose larva would devour the driftwood), warded to vanish any waste that was voided by the bird using the perch (to keep the perches clean and reduce any unpleasant smells associated with the birds), and layered with charms and spells to protect the perch from spell damage, physical damage, or weather damage if placed outside. Each perch had been shrunken and stored in a small wooden case with a Featherweight Charm so that the perches could be easily stored or moved due to the perches weighing roughly two hundred pounds each.

Harry quickly set up both of the perches, one on either side of the tent's main entrance to offer additional protection on top of the security wards (setting the two eagles up to be feathered guard dogs of sorts). He then filled the removable water dishes that had come with the perches with fresh water before transferring the eagles from the couch to their perches; placing Flip on the left and Flop on the right (brass name plates would be added to the perches several weeks later in order to make it easier for others to tell the two birds apart). Satisfied that the two birds had been taken care of for the night, Harry grabbed his trunk pack and carried it to the bedroom and dropped it beside his wardrobe before crawling into bed without bothering to get undressed.

Nightmares would plague the teen's sleep and eventually drive him topside just before dawn where he would end up perched on the very end of the bowsprit alongside Flip and Flop.

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**Definitions:** Nautical Terms

Ahoy – a call used to draw the attention of crew on a boat or ship  
Berth – a bed or other sleeping accommodation on a ship or boat  
Bow – refers to the front part of the ship and is also sometimes called the prow  
Bowsprit – a spar (or pole) affixed to the prow/bow of the boat that is used as an anchor point for the forestay (a piece of standard rigging that helps hold the mast from falling backwards).  
Carrack – is a three or four-masted ship that was developed in the fourteen hundreds by the Portuguese  
Crow's nest – an alternate name for the masthead  
Galley – the ships kitchen  
Main deck – the uppermost deck of the ship that extends from the bow to the stern  
Masthead – the platform near the top of the mainmast on which a lookout will sit in order to get the best view  
Mess – also called the mess deck or mess hall; the place where the crew will eat and sometimes sleep  
Port/port side – the left side of the ship  
Rigging – the technical name for the masts and lines on ships and other sailing vessels  
Scalawags/Scallywags – a scamp, rascal, rapscallion, or scoundrel  
Square-rigged – a type of rigging where the sails are attached to horizontal spars that are perpendicular to the keel of the ship and masts  
Starboard/starboard side – the right side of the ship  
Stern – the rear or back end of the ship  
Tri-masted – meaning that the ship has three masts (foremast, mainmast, and mizzenmast)

**Notes:**

Six stone – eighty-four pounds  
Gaki – Japanese for brat  
Kaijinmaru – is the name of the Captain's ship from the 1999 Anime adaptation of Hunter x Hunter. According to Google translate, Kaijin means mysterious person, phantom, or monster while 'maru' is a suffix that is sometimes added to the end of a boy's name.

* Number of Death Eaters present – this number is based upon the section in chapter thirty-four of HP and the Goblet of Fire when Harry is about to face Voldemort in a duel and he's thinking about how little he learned and the fact that he is currently out-numbered at least 30 to 1. I took that to mean that he counted at least twenty-nine Death Eaters plus the Dark Lord to come up with the thirty (give or take two or three). This number was also included in the forty-seven people that Harry claimed were all waiting in line to kill him later in the chapter (a number that also includes the Death Eaters still in prison, Dumbledore, Snape, and Harry's relatives).


	5. Training x on the x High Seas

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Five: Training x on the x High Seas

The Kaijinmaru came alive with the rising of the sun as the crew poured out onto the deck from below in order to prepare the ship for departure. Harry watched the men flit and scramble about while the First Mate barked out orders and watched over the preparations from the quarterdeck above the wheelhouse. By the time the sun finished rising above the horizon, the ropes securing the boat to the pier had been cast off and the ship began making its way out to the open sea with the help of a harbor boat to guide it through the maze of ships and docks that littered the busy harbor.

Surprisingly, none of the crew attempted to chase Harry from his rather dangerous perch upon the bowsprit. That would, of course, change the moment the crew needed to raise the jib sail that was housed on the bowsprit but for now they let him be only because he wasn't in their way. The crew had also been informed to steer clear of the passengers for the most part so as not to interfere with the various tests that the captain had planned to throw at the Hunter Exam Applicants in order to determine whether or not they were worthy of actually competing in the upcoming Hunter's Exam.

That meant that if one of the applicants was stupid enough to fall overboard or do something else equally stupid, then he'd be left for shark bait or tossed off the ship at the next port because he was obviously not Hunter material.

Harry had already unknowingly passed one such test of the captain's; he'd not allowed any of the other applicants to intimidate him, he'd claimed sleeping space in his assigned berth, and he'd survived through the night. He had also sparked the captain's interest with his unorthodox pets, his willingness to help clean up the night before, and the natural grace he's exhibited when climbing up the rope ladder and again when he'd taken his perch on the bowsprit in the predawn darkness. It was the same grace that had seen him labeled as a natural flyer in his first year (coupled with his fearlessness and instinctive sense of balance).

Once the ship was clear of the harbor, the sails were raised and the vessel began to pick up speed as the ship was pointed towards its next destination. The feel of the wind rushing passed him as the ship cut through the salty water reminded Harry of flying and he closed his eyes to savor the sensation as he felt the last traces of his nightmares fade in the feeling of peace that always gripped Harry when he was in the air. After a while, Harry shooed Flip and Flop off to stretch their wings and hunt up their next meal before he stood up and stared out over the seemingly endless expanse of water stretching out in front of the ship.

The teen remained on the bowsprit until his stomach began to complain over its current state of emptiness. Harry made his way back to the deck at that point and headed down to the mess hall to see if breakfast was being served yet. He arrived at the tail end of the meal just in time to grab a plate of breakfast goulash (pan-fried potato cubes mixed with scrambled eggs, cubed ham, shredded cheese, and diced onions, garlic, and bell peppers) and buttered toast. To drink, he had a choice of fresh squeezed orange juice, black coffee, or a breakfast blend black tea; Harry chose the orange juice because it had been months since he'd last had any juice other than pumpkin juice.

After he finished his meal, Harry once again helped clean up the messes left behind by the other passengers before he headed back to his tent to take a shower and change his clothes. He then dug out the care guide on sea eagles that he'd requested in order to familiarize himself with Flip and Flop's needs before he headed back up to the deck so he could enjoy the clear weather while it lasted. When he found his earlier perch on the bowsprit inaccessible due to the jib sail being raised, Harry spent a few minutes hunting for an out of the way place to sit before he nimbly climbed up the ratlines to commandeer the empty crow's nest.

Harry would spend the rest of the day up in the crow's nest alternating between reading the care guide, staring out over the ocean, or lavishing attention on the two eagles whenever they joined him to rest their wings. He was occasionally joined by one of the crew members for an hour or two at a time and while most of them usually just ignored Harry, a few of them actually struck up a conversation with him either about his eagles or about sailing and the ocean. Over all, it was a peaceful day filled with much learning and little activity and the only thing that would have made it better was if Ron and Hermione had been there with him.

Harry only descended after the sun sank below the horizon so that he could grab something small for supper since he'd skipped lunch altogether. Like during the evening meal the night before, Flip and Flop tagged along to share his meal (despite the fact that both birds had hunted off and on all day long) and he would lend Katzo a hand cleaning up after everyone else had cleared out. Harry then retreated to his tent for the rest of the night where he spent several hours browsing through the books he'd been given, rummaging through the training equipment, and examining the magical navigation equipment.

On the third day out of Portsmouth, the Kaijinmaru left British waters and Harry received a visitor in the form of an excited Dobby after supper. Harry had spent the entire night learning the rules that governed the bond between wizard and elf before he gave the elf a list of duties (with Dobby negotiating for more work). To start with; Dobby would work at Hogwarts Monday through Friday spying on the staff members that lived in the castle year round in order to determine how many of them were in on Dumbledore's kill Harry plans. The weekends would then be split between watching Hogwarts, helping Bill, and cleaning Harry's tent. He would also answer any calls for help from Harry's friends and Harry himself.

Once the next school year started, those duties would shift to include watching over and protecting Harry's friends from Dumbledore and spying on those in on Dumbledore's plans. Additionally, Dobby would perform a supply run for Harry once a month to replace those items he used the most and to bring him any purchases that were made on his behalf (such as new books, clothes, or other item he ended up needing). Dobby was also ordered to explain the bond between humans and elves to Hermione the first chance he got so that she'd not continue on her quest to free the Hogwarts elves and to keep her from attempting to kill Harry when she learned that he'd bonded with Dobby.

The rest of June passed in much the same way as Harry's first days; with Harry's nightmares chasing him out of bed before the dawn and either onto the bowsprit or the quarterdeck where he'd sit alone with the two eagles until breakfast. Once he'd eaten breakfast (the largest meal he ate each day) and helped collect the dirty dishes, Harry would shower and change, grab a book to read, and spent the rest of the daylight hours perched up in the crow's nest. He'd then come down near supper time, share a light meal with the matching menaces (as the crew had quickly named the two eagles), and help clean up the mess hall before retreating to his tent where he would dedicate his time to learning how to use and maintain the various artifacts that he'd been given.

Harry's routine would change with the arrival of Gringotts' messenger hawk (a gyrfalcon) carrying Bill's first monthly report and the promised study guide on the first of July. Also included in the packet he received was a list of the books that Harry would need to cover all of the material that would be on the O.W.L.s. Bill had suggested that Harry go through the list and cross off the ones that he already owned and send the list of those he didn't have back to Bill so the older wizard could purchase them for him; that way he wouldn't end up with duplicate titles. Harry would send his reply (along with a short report of what he'd been doing for the past ten or eleven days) off with Flip first thing the next morning.

From that point forward, the amount of time that Harry spent hanging about in the crow's nest was drastically reduced as he began studying; starting with the wanded subjects (Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and Charms). He started by reading up on those spells that he would need to demonstrate during the practical portion of the O.W.L.s and brushing up on the magical theories that covered those three subjects. Once he had a firm understanding of how and why a spell worked, he would move onto the mechanics of casting the spell (incantations and wand movements) prior to making the first attempt at casting the spell.

As Harry read and practiced, he began to notice that he was no longer struggling to remember facts or memorize the wand movements and incantations like he had previously. He also found that he no longer had to struggle in order to get his magic to respond; though he quickly discovered that he'd lost a considerable amount of control at the same time. It only took him a short while to realize that all three things must be side effects of having the multiple bindings that had been placed on him removed.

That revelation led to Harry going back to the first year material to re-read all of his books and notes in order to fill in the holes in his education. This included taking the time to practice and master all of the first year spells. Once he finished reviewing and mastering the first year curriculum, he'd work his way forward through the second, third, and fourth year material in the same way. By the time he finished the fourth year material, he'd surpassed his previous skill level (his level prior to Sortilegus removing his bindings) by leaps and bounds.

On top of the studying he was doing for the O.W.L. Exams, Harry had picked three subjects to study from amongst the books he'd been given by Hogwarts; Mind Magics, Wandless and Wordless Spell Casting, and Swordsmanship. Mind Magic was a branch of magic that solely focused on internalized magic that strengthened and enhanced a wizard's mind. This included the study of: Occlumency – the art of defending one's mind from external attacks. Legilimency – the art of throwing one's mind outwards to attack or 'read' another's mind. Mindscaping – the art of creating, maintaining, and controlling a mental landscape for one's inner mind or mindscape. And Meditation – the art of training and organizing one's mind that helps one control their emotions, improve their recall abilities, and achieve a higher state of relaxation or peace.

Mind Magic was also a necessary skill if one wished to learn Wandless and Wordless Spell Casting, Self Transfiguration (such as the Animagus Transformation), or Aura Reading (an ability that allows one to 'read' the life force or aura of the people around them; also called Mage Sight or Soul Searching in older texts).

Wandless and Wordless Spell Casting would allow Harry to more easily use his magic to protect himself while he was traveling amongst muggles without drawing too much attention. Additionally, it would give him the upper hand in a duel or fight because it would harder for his opponents to counter his spells if they couldn't hear the incantations he was using and being disarmed would no longer mean that he was defenseless. Wandless and Wordless Spell Casting was also another skill that would be extremely beneficial when learning Self Transfiguration.

Learning swordsmanship would allow Harry to better protect himself in situations where he couldn't openly use his magic. It would also allow Harry to increase his physical fitness level which in turn would help increase his stamina and endurance levels and further boost his control over his spell casting. But mostly, Harry just wanted to learn how to properly wield Gryffindor's sword after discovering that it had been tucked in amongst the other items Hogwarts had given to him. He'd been fascinated with the idea of sword fighting ever since he'd pulled the sword from Sortilegus in his second year and even he knew he'd been damned lucky not to stab himself or kill himself when he'd used the blade to defend himself against the basilisk.

Harry typically practiced Swordsmanship out on the quarterdeck in the mornings, Mind Magic up in the crow's nest during the afternoons, and his Wandless and Wordless Spell Casting in the privacy of his tent during the evenings or when they ran into foul weather. The rest of his studying was squeezed in between those three things when he needed a break from the physically and magically exhausting training that went hand in hand with his chosen topics of study.

After the first three days in a row that he'd appeared on the quarterdeck with a wooden practice sword in hand to practice his stances (the practice sword had been included amongst his training equipment), one of the sailors took it upon himself to step in and correct Harry's form and grip. Jacob Manning (the crewman in question) also put together a physical training schedule for Harry in order to improve his physical fitness, speed, and strength.

This training included running laps around the deck, climbing up and down the ratlines, doing sit-ups, squats, and push-ups, and helping to sail the ship. To further build up the strength in his arms, Jacob began having Harry wear weighted armbands on his forearms. He started out with a single pound on each arm (which surprisingly made his arms ache by the end of the day despite how little they weighed) and added another pound to the bands at the end of each week in order to slowly build up his strength over time.

After the first week of training under the man, Jacob introduced Harry to his buddy Gunter Schmidt who in turn introduced Harry to gymnastics and acrobatics and taught him a series of exercises and stretches that would increase his flexibility. Harry took to those two disciplines like a duck to water thanks to his innate sense of balance, natural grace, and his lack of fear of heights and falling. Those new lessons also helped keep Harry from missing flying and Quidditch practice by giving him a sense of danger and daring that was almost equal to flying through the air on his broom.

Six weeks after being introduced to Gunter, Harry's acrobatics and gymnastics lessons were incorporated into his sparring practice. Combining the two forms of training allowed Harry to better dodge his opponent's attacks in addition to learning how to best use his environment to his advantage. Once he grew comfortable with the new element to his spars, the mock fights were no longer restricted to the quarterdeck; meaning that Harry often found himself fighting on the ratlines, on the bulwarks, and below decks in the cargo hold. Those spars further honed his skills as he learned to fight on unstable surfaces, precarious perches, inside of restricted space, and on uneven levels.

Within a few days of starting the physical training, Harry found the number of nightmares he experienced each night dropping drastically as he worked and trained himself to near exhaustion each day. He also experienced an increase in appetite and soon began eating lunch in addition to breakfast and supper; though the amount he ate at each meal was still far below what would be considered a full serving for a child of his age, weight, and height. Still, the fact that he was eating three regular meals would eventually mean that he filled out some (though he'd always be rather slender), gained close to a stone, and grew a several centimeters by the time he was delivered to the site of this year's Hunter's Exam.

By the end of August, Harry was practically unrecognizable. First, he'd taken to running about the ship in nothing but a pair of loose fitting canvas breeches that ended just below the knees, his mokeskin pouch, and the weighted bracers on his forearms (with his wand tucked into the left bracer to both hide it and keep it close to hand) which saw him developing a light tan due to how much time he spent out in the sun. His hands and feet developed calluses from running around barefoot, climbing through the rigging, and handling the course ropes day in and day out.

His hair had grown out enough that it no longer stuck up in every direction and had faded to a dark rusty red. Once it reached the middle of his shoulder blades, Harry took to tying it back in a messy braid to keep the long strands out of his face. Next, he'd ditched his old glasses at their third port of call and purchased a new pair of glasses that had thin brass wire frames, transitional lenses (that would darken or lighten based upon the amount of light they were exposed to), and an updated (and therefore accurate) prescription.

Finally, Harry carried himself with far more confidence than he had prior to boarding the Kaijinmaru. The virtual disappearance of his lightning bolt scar (thanks to the removal of the link that had been siphoning off his magic) also made a bigger difference than Harry would have imagined it would since the disfigurement no longer drew attention away from the rest of Harry's face.

During that time, Harry's bond with Flip and Flop grew to equal the bond he'd shared with Hedwig during their three years together; something that helped ease the ache in his heart over his absent friend. The young wizard had quickly learned to how to distinguish between the different honking calls that the eagles voiced based upon tone, pitch, length, number, and sequencing of the cries. He also discovered that Flip had taken a liking for various shellfishes (particularly crustaceans) while Flop preferred to dine on squid or young sharks (if he could catch them when they came up to the surface to feed or if they got caught in the nets when the crew fished). Neither one of them ever refused anything that Harry offered to them though.

On the other side of the coin, both birds had become hyper sensitive to Harry's moods and would respond accordingly; such as coming to his defense if they felt his fear or anger and either giving him space or seeking to offer comfort when he was feeling sad or depressed. They had also begun responding to a number of Harry's gestures with a specific behavior; such as coming to land on his arm if he raised it in the air (Flip always landing on his left arm and Flop on the right – his weighted bracers protecting his arms from their talons) or searching out schools of fish moving near the surface of the water if he held up his right hand up with only his index finger extended and moved it in circles before pointing in the direction he wished them to search.

Additionally, Harry had trained the two eagles to respond differently to different whistles. A long whistle that maintained its pitch would bring both birds to his side for further instructions (such as sending off a letter), a long whistle that rose in pitch would have the two birds returning to his side and staying close, a long whistling dropping in pitch was a signal for the eagles to scatter and search for nearby threats or prey, and a short sharp whistle that was high in pitch was the signal for them to attack while two such whistles in rapid succession was the signal to cease attack. The two Sea Eagles had also learned several new pranks (some of them self taught while others were picked up from observing Harry and the other humans on the ship).

They'd taken to stealing hats, glasses, small weapons, or other trinkets from those people that irritated Harry (these were usually new applicants that attempted to bully him or those people that just couldn't resist trying to push Harry around because of his size despite the number of times Harry and his eagles humiliated them in front of the other applicants and crew). They also had taken to slapping people or visiting seagulls (of which there were few due to Flip and Flop's presence) in the faces with live fish or fresh seaweed when the mood struck them. The two of them would even target Harry on occasion if they thought he was ignoring them. The final prank they picked up was dive bombing; either to drop pebbles and other debris in people's food and drinks or to defecate on those people that insulted them or Harry.

Needless to say, the two birds had truly earned the nickname of the matching menaces due to their antics.

Harry had also grown closer to Bill during that time as the older wizard became something of a brother and uncle slash mentor to the younger wizard. As Harry's only point of contact with anyone in the wizarding world (Ron, Hermione, the twins, Sirius, and Remus all being caught up in the information ban that Dumbledore had placed on Harry through no fault of their own), Bill became Harry's only source of information on what was happening in the wizarding world and on the status of his closest friends and family. The result of that was that Harry began opening up more and more to the soon to be twenty-five year old through their regular correspondences until his short reports turned into proper letters before morphing into something of a journal where Harry talked about anything and everything.

Bill, for his part, encouraged Harry to open up to him and offered him advice and comfort in return as well as sharing many stories of what it had been like growing up in a large wizarding family. The older wizard also consistently kept Harry informed on the status of his estates; his monthly reports maintaining an air of professionalism that was not present in the letters he included with the reports. In that way, Bill maintained the perfect balance between personal matters and business matters that would allow Harry to keep business matters separate from his personal life.

The redheaded wizard also gave the best birthday presents. He started by smuggling a letter and a present a piece from Harry's friends, Sirius, and Remus. Bill had then managed to talk his mother into making Harry a birthday cake and several treacle tarts. Finally, Bill had given Harry a top of the line dragon hide dueling cloak, matching dragon hide boots and gloves (all three items made from Hungarian Horntail hide), and a copy of the _Dueler's Grimoire_. The Grimoire contained the official rules for the International Dueling Tournament, training guides for the various stances of the different dueling forms and styles, tips on creating or modifying spell chains, a list of specialized dueling spells, and a section on dirty dueling that taught the reader how to recognize dirty moves an opponent might pull as well as how to use them against an opponent.

The dueling cloak was designed to fit snugly over the chest, shoulders, and arms with the front flaps overlapping and buttoning up along the right side of the chest to add an extra layer of protection for the heart and lungs. The cloak then flared out slightly from the waist, hung down to the middle of the calf, and had a split centered on the back from the knees to the hem that allowed for greater maneuverability. A stiff, high-necked collar offered protection for the neck and throat while the boots and gloves that had come with the cloak would protect the feet, lower legs up to the knee, and the hands. Cloak, boots, and gloves were also woven over with spells that offered additional protection and comfort.

A Bounce Ward would prevent someone from casting tracking spells on the individual wearing the set. A Temperature Regulation Charm would prevent the wearer from growing too hot or too cold due to the weather or spells (though it would not stop him from sweating through physical activity or prevent him from overheating if his internal body temperature rose). A Resizing Charm would allow the set to make slight adjustments to account for moderate growth and changes in weight so that they didn't become too tight or too loose.

A Moisture Absorption Ward on the inside would draw sweat and other fluids away from the wearer's body (limited to where each item came into contact with his skin and clothing). A Moisture Repellant Ward on the outside would prevent the set from getting soaked and therefore growing heavy (which could affect one's performance). And a Comfort Charm would prevent the set from chaffing the wearer due to the stiffness of the hide.

Bill's gift was, by far, Harry's favorite gift that year but that wasn't to say he didn't appreciate or like the rest of the gifts he'd received, he just liked Bill's the most because not only was it a practical gift, it was a cool gift.

Most everyone else gave Harry books; Hermione gave him a leather bound journal (for him to write down his thoughts and feelings in). Fred and George gave him a prank book titled _One Hundred Spells to Make Your Friends Laugh and Your Enemies Cry_. Remus had given him secondhand copies of _Moby Dick_, _Treasure Island_, and _The Old Man and the Sea_ (all in fair condition). And Sirius gave him the _Seafarer's Grimoire_; which contained a list of spells that were used in sailing, fishing, weather protection, navigation, and boat construction in addition to a glossary of nautical terms, a list of magical creatures that lived in the ocean, and a guide to magical ports of call around the world. Ron and Ginny, on the other hand, gave Harry a box of assorted Honeydukes sweets.

Remus's and Sirius's gifts (and their accompanying letters) let Harry know that Bill had succeeded in smuggling both older wizards to Gringotts and freed them from Dumbledore's strings. Both older men had also let Harry know that they didn't blame him for running and were not angry that he'd turned to Bill and Gringotts for help. Their assurances that they thought that he'd done the right thing lifted a weight from Harry's shoulders that he hadn't even known was there and made it much easier for him to throw himself into his training with all his heart.

They also fully supported his decision to seek his Hunter's License and warned him to be careful who he told about his being entered in the Hunter Exams due to the fear and resentment that most magicals held towards Hunters. In fact, they flat out told him that Hunters were seen as the boogiemen of the magical world and that they inspired far more fear than Voldemort and his Death Eaters ever did due to the fact that Hunters were known to hunt (and kill) magicals. Most of that was because of the rumors and lies that were spread by Dumbledore in order to discourage wizards and witches from attempting to earn their Hunter's License but there were kernels of truth in the stories; which made them all that much more believable.

In regards to the Hunter's Exam and Harry's chances of passing the captain's test and actually having a shot at taking the Exam this year, Harry was doing far better than any of the other applicants that had boarded the ship during the months of June, July, and August. He'd actually passed several more small tests; weathering the handful of mild storms they'd been caught up in, never backing down from any challenge (which included the training that Jacob was giving him), and using his head to solve the little puzzles that the captain set up each time they dropped anchor at a new port of call. The rest of the applicants that had boarded the ship in Portsmouth or at some point before that hadn't faired that well and by the end of August, less than three of them were still passengers aboard the Kaijinmaru while the rest of the seventy plus applicants aboard the vessel had all been picked up after that.

September first found a conflicted Harry staring off in the direction of Britain and Hogwarts. If he'd still been under Dumbledore's control, he'd currently be boarding the Hogwarts Express and returning to the castle for his fifth year. A very small part of Harry wished he was there, if only because it would mean that he'd soon be seeing his friends and because he missed everything that Hogwarts represented to him when he first learned of the magical school. The rest of him was satisfied with the direction his life had taken; especially when he considered how much stronger he'd grown physically, mentally, emotionally, and magically.

Harry would later learn that the goblin made golem that had been sent to take his place and cover up his disappearance had run out of magic during the middle of the Start of Term Feast; announcing his escape to the world.

Hogwarts and the new school year was soon driven from Harry's mind as Jacob took his training to the next level once it became apparent that Harry was ready to step up his training. In his sword training, this involved switching out his standard wooden practice sword with a weighted wooden practice sword and actively sparring with the occasional applicant looking to relive the boredom of being stuck on the ship in order for him to gain experience in fighting against different dueling/sparring styles without risking his life in a real fight. Pull-ups, chin-ups, and jumping jacks were also added to his physical conditioning training now that he was no longer so out of shape.

Harry's magical training was progressing just as steadily. He'd successfully created his mindscape (which had taken on the appearance of an endless ocean), made progress in sorting his memories through a combination of Meditation and Mindscaping, and strengthened his mind's natural defenses with Occlumency. Harry mostly stopped having nightmares once he began to master the basic levels of those three particular branches of Mind Magics. Consistently getting a good night's rest helped his training just as much as the increase in how much food he ate on a daily basis did. It also made it far easier to control his emotions since he tended to be less cranky when he didn't wake up just as tired as he'd been when he went to bed.

After studying the theory behind Wandless and Wordless Spell Casting for nearly two months and once he'd begun making progress using Mind Magics, Harry once again returned to the first year curriculum and began learning to cast each spell without his wand and without speaking. His progress on Wordless Casting was far more obvious than that he'd made on his Wandless Casting; that was only to be expected though. Wandless Casting was an exceedingly difficult skill to master simply because one had to learn how to pull up their magic without the aide of a magical focus, regulate the amount of magic they drew each time they cast, maintain control of the magic long enough to cast the spell, and direct the magic of the spell so that it struck the intended target.

So far, Harry had only managed to cast the Trip Jinx, the Leg-Locker Curse, the Body-Bind Curse, and the Stinging Hex wandlessly while he was well into the second year spells with his silent casting. He was currently working on trying to cast the Tickling Charm, the Full Body-Bind Curse, and the Bluebell Flame Spell. His O.W.L. training was progressing at a far more satisfactory rate as he worked his way through the spells for the wanded subjects and began reading through the material for the non-wanded subjects (History of Magic, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions). He ignored Divinations completely since he had no intention of taking that O.W.L. but toyed with the idea of going over the material that would be covered on the Muggle Studies O.W.L. later on since he figured that might be an easy but worthwhile pass to replace Divination.

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**Definitions:** Nautical Terms

Berth – a bed or other sleeping accommodation on a ship or boat  
Bowsprit – a spar (or pole) affixed to the prow/bow of the boat that is used as an anchor point for the forestay (a piece of standard rigging that helps hold the mast from falling backwards).  
Bulwarks – the part of the ship's side that extends above the level of the weather deck or main deck  
Crow's nest – an alternate name for the masthead  
First Mate – the second in command aboard the ship  
Galley – the ships kitchen  
Jib sail – a triangular sail at the front of a ship and a type of staysail (a sail affixed to the stays – which are the ropes, wires, or rods that help stabilize the masts)  
Main deck – the uppermost deck of the ship that extends from the bow to the stern  
Masthead – the platform near the top of the mainmast on which a lookout will sit in order to get the best view  
Mess – also called the mess deck or mess hall; the place where the crew eats and sometimes sleeps  
Port of call – another name for the various destinations that a ship stops at  
Quarterdeck – the aft or aftermost deck on a ship  
Ratlines – permanent rope ladders that run from the bulwarks to the top of the masts that allow the crew to easily access the topmasts and yards; they usually look much like thick, wide weave nets.  
Rigging – the technical name for the masts and lines on ships and other sailing vessels  
Wheelhouse – the location of the ship's wheel (also called a pilothouse or the bridge)

**Notes:**

Books – Moby Dick is by Herman Melville, Treasure Island is by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Old Man and the Sea is by Ernest Hemingway, and the rest were made up books that I created for this story (and other stories I have written).


	6. Hunter x Exam x Hopefuls

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Six: Hunter x Exam x Hopefuls

It was on October twenty-third that Harry first saw a future member of a small group of individuals that would have a huge impact upon his life before the end of the two hundred eighty-seventh Hunter's Examination.

The Kaijinmaru had stopped at yet another port of call to purchase supplies, drop off the latest group of failures, and pick up the next batch of applicants. This time they were scheduled for a two-day layover to give the crew time to rest and enjoy the local attractions (which meant most of them were looking for a willing woman and cheap booze). Harry had opted to stay on board the ship in order to escape Jacob and Gunter's plans to cure him of his virginity; the two had been surprised to learn that 'seventeen year old James Evans' had never been with a woman. They'd been further shocked to learn that Harry had never received 'the talk' before they collected themselves and promptly corrected that glaring oversight.

Harry had never been so embarrassed and horrified in all of his life as their idea of 'the talk' involved a very detailed description of all the terrible diseases that one could catch if he visited the 'wrong' kind of woman in addition to very explicit instructions on what he should do with a naked woman once he got her into bed.

That had taken place just two days before they docked and Harry had been unable to stop blushing any time he saw either man ever since then; something that greatly amused his two trainers and more than half the crew. Any curiosity that Harry might have had in regards to girls and dating (he was a healthy teenager after all) had pretty much disappeared as a result of the mental scarring that conversation had evoked. So, when Harry learned that Gunter and Jacob planned to find Harry an appropriate trainer to guide him through his first experience with a woman; Harry had promptly decided that he would not be setting one foot off the ship during the two days they would be anchored at the small harbor.

Harry almost wished he hadn't added two years to his alter ego's age but soon came to the conclusion that even if they knew he was fifteen, they'd still try to set him up with a woman for a one-night-stand.

That was how Harry came to still be on the ship and not in town stretching his legs when the fresh applicants began trickling aboard the ship. At the time, Harry had perched himself midway up the portside ratlines (where it would be harder for the two crewmen to sneak up on him and drag him ashore against his will) with Flip and Flop clinging to the ropes on either side of him as they analyzed the new applicants the moment they climbed up the rope ladder to board the ship. Harry categorized each applicant by their ability to competently use the ladder, the level of fear they showed if the ladder shifted and twisted beneath their feet, and the look on their faces when they caught sight of him watching them from his perch up in the ratlines.

Those he pegged as gutless bullies were promptly pointed out to his feathered companions as potential prank targets and those that had the appearance of hardcore bullies were also pointed out to the birds with the instructions to consider them potential threats (which meant the two birds would keep a close eye on them for as long as they were on the ship). Those individuals that looked or carried themselves like hardened criminals were to be treated with the same caution as the hardcore bullies while petty thieves were lumped in with the gutless bullies. Those that fell in any category outside those four were basically ignored (this group would include the idiots, the loners, and the scholarly types).

Once an applicant had been categorized, Harry would calculate the odds of them being kicked off the ship at the next port of call and the likelihood of them passing the little tests that the captain gave to all new arrivals. Tests that Harry had not taken note of until after his fifth port of call; when he had began paying more attention to everything that happened aboard the ship between ports instead of focusing all of his attention on his studies and training.

Harry had gotten very good at reading people over the last three months and he hardly ever miscategorized any one any more while his predictions of just how long an applicant would remain on board were also fairly accurate. And he knew without a doubt that every single applicant he'd categorized over the course of the morning on the twenty-third would not last more than four ports of call before they either fled the ship in fear or were kicked off for failing one or more of the captain's tests.

Harry was just beginning to wonder if any of the other prospective applicants they had yet to pick up would be given a shot at actually taking the Hunter's Exam that year alongside of him (the captain had already informed Harry that he'd passed his tests with flying colors) when he caught his first glimpse of the blonde.

It was his hair that had attracted Harry's attention first; the straw colored, messy locks stood out sharply in the sea of bald heads, dark hair, and assorted hat and bandana covered heads that currently filled the docks. His clothes were what kept Harry's attention on the other boy as they stood out even more so than the boy's hair; white pants, long sleeved white shirt, medium blue tabard with red trim, and faded blue deck shoes. The wizard estimated his height to be between thirteen and fourteen centimeters taller than his own one hundred fifty-seven and a half centimeters. Harry lost sight of the blonde shortly after that as he passed behind a stack of crates and barrels on the pier and Harry soon put the other boy out of his mind as he returned to assessing the next group of applicants.

The next time Harry saw the blonde was when he returned just before sunset carrying a pale gray messenger bag slung over his head and right shoulder. As he tracked the boy's progress down the pier, Harry noted the boy moved with a fluid catlike grace that reminded Harry of a tiger prowling through the shadows. Harry really wasn't surprised when the blonde stopped to speak with Kaijinmaru's captain before deftly making his way up the rope ladder and vaulting over the bulwarks. He landed gracefully on the deck with nary a sound before he scanned the main deck for potential threats and Harry immediately categorized him as a wary loner that could hold his own in a fight.

The blonde had just finished scanning the deck about the time that Harry estimated the boy to be around the same age as his alter ego when the teen glanced upwards to meet Harry's gaze through his darkened glasses. In the scant seconds that the blonde held his gaze, Harry read the pain, rage, and loneliness that clung to the shadows in the other teen's eyes and he sucked in a sharp breath as he recognized that look. It was a look that Harry had occasionally seen in the mirror over the past several months whenever he caught himself thinking about Voldemort or Dumbledore.

The older teen broke eye contact a heartbeat later as he finally moved away from the bulwark and Harry rolled over and scrambled up the lines to take refuge in the crow's nest; his thoughts lingering on the blonde teen.

A teen he was certain would still be on the Kaijinmaru when they reached their final destination.

Harry wasn't quite sure how to feel about that since he instinctively knew that the teen was the only real threat on board the ship. Oh, Harry wasn't worried that the teen would attack or harm him; he just knew that the blonde was a dangerous individual whose training far exceeding anything that Harry had learned since boarding the Kaijinmaru. When Flip and Flop joined him in the crow's nest a few minutes later, Harry softly instructed them to keep an eye on the blonde before ordering them not to prank him until he got a better read on the boy's personality; Harry didn't want to piss the blonde off needlessly.

The wizard wouldn't officially meet the blonde until three days later when they were once again out on the open sea. At the time, Harry had just finished his morning workout and was in the middle stretching out in preparation for his daily sparring practice while he waited for Jacob to join him when the other teen appeared on the quarterdeck unexpectedly. Harry eyed the teen with curiosity right up until it became clear that the teen was headed right for Harry. The fifteen year old immediately became wary as he'd not missed the fact that the teen had observed his training more than once over the past couple of days.

"Good morning," the blonde greeted when he stopped just a few feet away from where Harry was seated on the deck stretching out his back and legs. "After spending the last three days observing my fellow applicants, I've come to the conclusion that they are, on the whole, a pretty useless lot and it would therefore be pointless to ask any of them to train with me. On the other hand, I was greatly intrigued by what little I've seen of your daily training routine. I know from speaking with a few of the crew members and a couple of the applicants that have been traveling aboard the Kaijinmaru since before I boarded that you often spar with any one who is interested."

"I won't spar with anyone who is just looking to beat up someone smaller than them; I'm no one's punching bag," Harry countered as he finished stretching, rolled himself up into a hand stand, and flipped himself over onto his feet so that he no longer had to look up quite so far. "Otherwise, your information is mostly true. I take you are interested in sparring with me at least once?"

"Yes; though I'd actually hoped that you might be willing to spar with me two or three times a week between now and when we reach the Examination Site. It has been over four years since I had a proper sparring partner and I could use the practice to improve my form."

Harry hummed thoughtfully as he closed his eyes and considered the other teen's request while he stretched out his arm muscles. He eventually came to the conclusion that there wouldn't be any harm in agreeing to spar with the blonde and having a new sparring partner was appealing since so few of the other applicants could wield a sword and while Jacob and Gunter were normally willing to spar with him, they weren't always available because they had a job to do.

"I wouldn't mind having another sparring partner," Harry finally answered as he opened his eyes and met the teen's gaze before glancing passed him to see Jacob coming up the ladder. "The other applicants usually don't come back more than once or twice because they can't keep up with me when I leave the deck and take to the rigging; the lot of them far too used to dancing prettily back and forth on flat ground and far too old to adapt. We'll just have to clear it with Jacob and Gunter since they are in charge of my physical training."

"And just what is it that you'll have to clear with me?" Jacob demanded loudly as he stopped directly behind the blonde and propped his fists on his hips; causing the blonde to start before he collected himself and pretended that he hadn't just been caught off guard.

"A potential sparring partner for the remainder of the voyage," Harry replied as he gestured to the blonde.

"Are you bored of me already then?"

"No; you just make me fear for my virtue," Harry quipped right back as he fought the blush that began creeping up the back of his neck in response to his verbal reference to the man's continued promises to find him a woman.

"I still say it's a crime for a lad of your age to never have known the pleasure a woman can offer a man."

"That's just because you're a perverted bilge-rat with a one track mind," Harry shot back as he lost the war against his embarrassment and his face turned beet red.

"Perverted bilge-rat? That's the best insult you could come up with? I'm beginning to fear that I'm never going to turn you into a proper sailor; you don't drink, you won't swear, and you're afraid of naked women. Are you sure you're seventeen?"

"That's because I was raised as a proper English gentleman for many long and grueling years and you've only had your grubby mitts on me for four months," Harry pointed out dryly as he crossed his arms and smirked over the top of his glasses.

"Proper gentlemen, eh? Don't make me laugh; I know it was you that taught the matching menaces to use the passengers as targets for their droppings."

"The others were complaining about having to clean Flip and Flop's poop from the deck all day long when they couldn't get clear of the ship before they relieved themselves; they haven't soiled the deck on over a month now. And you and I both know that you were one of many individuals that asked them to target specific people."

Jacob slapped his knee and laughed loudly but didn't deny the accusation while the blonde kept glancing between Harry and Jacob in confusion before he asked, "Who or what are the matching menaces? And what is a flip and flop?"

"The menaces are my companions," Harry replied as he pointed up to where the two eagles were currently perched in the rigging overhead. "Flip and Flop are their names. I'll also apologize for our rudeness; we should not have ignored you but I fear that the uncouth lug beside you has been a bad influence upon me."

"You have no reason to apologize; I took no offense to your playful and amusing banter. I was content to listen until I became lost when you used references with which I was not familiar."

"You're going to be a terrible influence on my young apprentice; I can see it now, you're going to undue all of my hard word and the gaki is going to fully revert back to his wretched gentlemanly self."

"Pay no mind to the riffraff," Harry deadpanned as he sent a half-hearted glare at Jacob.

"Ha! You're one to speak little rapscallion; did you even bother to introduce yourself? I know you didn't bother to introduce me."

Harry nearly blushed again because he hadn't introduced himself but managed not to reveal his renewed embarrassment away as he turned and offered, "Allow me to provide you with a late introduction to the slave driver masquerading as my instructor for all things pointy and sharp; the dastardly Jacob Manning."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Manning; I'm Kurapika," the blonde replied as he offered the older man a short bow.

Jacob moaned and palmed his face over being addressed as Mr. Manning yet again (that was what Harry had called the man the first few times the man had stepped in to correct Harry's forms in the beginning). The man then scowled at both teens as he growled, "I take it back; the two of you are perfect matches. You're both gonna drive me to cabin fever. I'll leave you to your spar so's I can hold onto my vittles as there's only so much politeness a body can stand this early in the morning."

Harry snickered as the man stalked away; the fifteen year old well aware that Jacob was just funning around. After a few minutes, he turned back to Kurapika as he finally introduced himself, "I'm James, by the way; and that was just Jacob's way of saying he approves of you as a sparring partner for me. He won't go far as he'll take perverse enjoyment out of embarrassing me during our spar as he loudly points out any and all mistakes I make. Did you wish to spar now or did you want to wait until later?"

"I'm ready now."

"Any particular rules you wish to establish for the spar?"

"No… not really; except to limit our attacks to non-lethal blows."

"That works for me… you going to have a problem if we use the entire ship as our battle ground or would you prefer to limit our spar to the quarterdeck?"

"I'm fine with using the entire ship."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement as he drew the weighted practice sword he carried on his hip at all times now, rose up onto the balls of his feet, and confidently settled into a defensive stance just a few feet away from Kurapika. His confidence faltered just a little when the blonde withdrew a pair of weighted wooden swords that were secured together with a short length of chain from behind his back. Harry frowned a bit as he'd never faced an opponent that used two swords before. He then wiped the emotion from his face as he pushed aside his worries; they were just going to have a friendly practice spar after all. The blonde attacked two seconds later.

Two hours later, Harry sat sprawled beneath the main mast gasping for his breath as sweat ran down his face and back; Kurapika was an absolute monster with his twin blades. The wizard was bruised from head to toe from the number of times the blonde had thumped him mercilessly with the ruddy things. He just knew he was going to ache all over until he could disappear down into his tent to take a hot shower and liberally smother the bruises with bruise balm. The only consolation Harry had over being on the losing end of their spar was the fact that Kurapika was just as exhausted as him due to Harry dragging their spar all over the ship; including up and down the ratlines more than once.

"Shall we spar again in two days?" Kurapika asked once he'd caught his breath.

"If you're sure you're going to be feeling up to it," Harry agreed as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"I'll be ready; but I worry that you'll be too stiff to move due to the number of hits you took."

"Pfft, this is nothing; I'll be up and running about the deck right after lunch to work on my gymnastics and acrobatics training with Gunter. Any soreness and all of my bruises will be gone by the time I start my training tomorrow morning."

"Really…?"

"Yep; after four months of torture… er… I mean training with Jacob and Gunter; I'm used to feeling like I've been worked over by herd of stampeding elephants at the end of a lesson," Harry quipped; drawing a laugh from the blonde.

Every third morning after that, Harry would spar with Kurapika while he continued to train with Gunter and Jacob on the two days between spars; the two sailors now teaching him how to face multiple blades and/or opponents. The only break he had during the next three weeks was on Halloween, when he spent the entire day (from the moment he woke up until the moment the moon set sometime around three in the morning) perched on the bowsprit and ignoring everyone as he reflected upon his absent friends and family and wondered whether or not his parents would be proud of him.

He was more than a little surprised when there hadn't been some kind of deadly encounter on the thirty-first (as there had been without fail since he started Hogwarts) before he worried that it might just be the castle that was cursed and not him personally like he'd formerly believed. Summoning Dobby for an update on what was happening at the castle when he returned to his tent put his mind to rest as the only thing that had happened was that the new Defense Professor (a witch by the name of Delores Umbridge) had been declared High Inquisitor of Hogwarts (whatever that was). Harry thanked the elf before he took a shower and drank a dose of Mulled Stone's Blood to wake himself up so that he could start his training as usual.

In between his spars and regular training, Harry still found the time to teach a couple of bullies a lesson they wouldn't soon forget after the two men had attempted to jump him one morning just outside of the berth he still shared with the other applicants. He also learned that a Stinging Hex to the eye at point blank range was extremely painful; or at least that was the impression he got when the man he'd hit with the wandless hex let loose a blood curdling scream and clawed at his face after being hit with the spell. Flip and Flop hadn't hesitated to jump into the fray and both men ended up sporting more than a few gashes from their sharp beaks and talons.

Harry had then left the bullies where they fell (after taking the time to give them each a parting kick to their block and tackle) and continued about his day as if nothing had happened. The two eagles would target the two men relentlessly for the rest of their time aboard the ship after that until it got to the point where the two bullies refused to leave their berth out of fear of the matching menaces.

When they pulled into yet another harbor on the fifteenth of November (seven days after the incident with the bullies) half of the applicants that had boarded at the previous port of call abandoned ship along with the two bullies; both of whom had been permanently scarred by Flip and Flop's vicious attack. Harry once again remained aboard the ship during the entire time they remained tied to the dock; he'd not missed the heated and resentful glares that had been sent his way by the two bullies as they disembarked. The wizard didn't really mind though; they would only be there for about eight hours, which really wasn't enough time to properly explore the city.

The teen spent those eight hours perched on the bulwarks beside the rope ladder hanging over the side chatting with the captain as he dealt with the small handful of new applicants that were boarding the vessel. It was in that new group that Harry discovered the second applicant that he knew would be given the chance to actually take the Hunter Exam.

The man was roughly thirty-five centimeter's taller than Harry (though the man's casual slouch made judging his height rather difficult) with black hair that had been cut short and spiked on top. The man wore small round sunglasses low on his nose, a dark blue business suit with a white dress shirt and turquoise tie, and polished black dress shoes. In his left hand, the man carried a slim black briefcase decorated with red diamond pattern. Despite the man dressing like a classy business man, he carried himself like a dufus. Looks could be deceiving though, and Harry didn't miss the hard look in the man's eyes or the way he easily scaled the robe ladder using only one hand.

And whereas Kurapika put Harry in the mind of a powerful tiger stalking his prey from the shadows, the tall man made Harry think of a playful wolf that disguised his dangerousness with his puppyish behavior.

It would be nearly two months before Harry learned the man's name as he kept to himself from the moment he boarded the vessel. Harry watched him sometimes though, curious about his contradicting nature; completely unaware that the man would soon play a much larger role in his life. The wizard's silent appraisal of the man would be proven correct about a week after he boarded the Kaijinmaru, when a group of thieves amongst the applicants attempted to mug the man during the middle of the night (the man's suit leading the thieves to believe that the man had money to burn). Harry had witnessed the entire incident and had been suitably impressed with the tall man's knife fighting abilities.

Harry would meet the third member of the group that would change his life one month after the tall man had boarded the ship when the Kaijinmaru reached Whale Island (the last stop to collect the last of the prospective applicants that the captain would be testing).

The kid in question had bounded onto the ship with blatant enthusiasm after everyone else had already boarded. He'd then waved excitedly to the crowd down on the docks and loudly swore that he'd pass the Hunter's Exam and become the best Hunter in the world as they left the island behind. Most of the other applicants on board scoffed over the kid's declaration but the gutsy kid wasn't in the least bit fazed as he turned his eyes on those that were lounging around the deck. He soon forgot those that were trying to intimidate him as he rushed to aide Katzo; the often clumsy deck hand had tripped over splinter and spilled a crate of apples. The new kid ended up making friends with Katzo as he quickly helped the ungainly deck hand collect the scattered fruit.

Harry had watched the entire scene playing out from his perch in the crow's nest and felt a pang of regret fill him as the kid immediately reminded him of himself when he'd still be young and innocent. The wizard had quickly shoved that thought out of his mind as he took the time to study the kid; taking in his long spiked green and black hair and intelligent brown eyes that burned with open determination. He was wearing green shorts, a white undershirt, and a green jacket with dark green and orange accents and on his back he carried a brown and tan rucksack with a fishing pole strapped to the side of the pack.

Harry figured the kid to be no older than eleven or twelve years due to the kid's sunny disposition and the way he wore his heart on his sleeve. That would make him the youngest applicant that Harry had crossed paths with to date; a title that Harry had previously held since he'd still been fourteen when he'd first boarded the Kaijinmaru. He was also the only applicant shorter than Harry (by about four centimeters, if you discounted his spiked hair). Harry knew without a doubt that the kid would be the only other applicant to reach the ship's final destination; he could see it in the kid's eyes.

The fifteen year old's attention was drawn away from the kid a moment later by the distressed cries of Flip and Flop as they dropped down to land beside him on the rail of the crow's nest. Harry had barely recognized that particular cry as the warning cry of an approaching storm when he suddenly had company in the crow's nest in the form of the younger kid that had just boarded the ship. Harry's brow furrowed in puzzlement as the kid pinched his nose a couple of times and sniffed at the wind before he half leaned over the edge of the crow's nest to loudly announce that a terrible storm was coming.

A glance over the side revealed to Harry that the captain agreed with the kid's assessment of the coming storm and the wizard's curiosity was peaked when he noticed a look of recognition pass over the captain's face; something about the kid had reminded the captain of someone that he knew. Shaking off the observation, the wizard grabbed the loose coil of robe that was attached to the main mast on one end and tossed the free end over the side of the crow's nest. The rope had been installed by Gunter shortly after Harry had started his acrobatics lessons in order to teach him how to swing from a rope without smashing into stationary objects and to teach him how to use a rope as a guide line to safely drop down from heights that might otherwise see him injured.

Harry kept one hand on the rope as he threw himself over the side of the crow's nest. When he was about halfway down, he grabbed the rope with his free hand and used both hands to slow his decent just enough that he hit the deck with a loud thump. He then whistled for Flip and Flop to come down so that he could move them into the tent for the duration of the coming storm in order to prevent them from being injured. Once they were safely stowed away, Harry returned to the deck and began helping the crew to batten down the hatches and anchor any lose items in place to prevent them being swept overboard during the storm.

There was no time to give any further thought to the curious child that was looking to take the Hunter's Exam as the storm struck with all the vengeance of a jilted and jealous lover. It was, by far, the worst storm that Harry had ever experienced in his entire life; worse even than the time the dementors had driven him from his broom during the middle of a Quidditch match in his third year. Close to half of the crew (including Jacob) and almost all of the applicants became violently ill as the carrack was tossed about by wind and water; the small ship frequently being thrown clear of the water completely.

Harry was one of the few individuals that were not crippled with seasickness (the various magical forms of transport he'd experienced to date had long since inoculated him against any kind of motion sickness) and he rode out the storm by helping to secure the loose cargo in the hold to prevent them from taking heavy losses of their supplies (such as food and fresh water) on top of filling in for those crew members that were unable to work. As he moved about below deck, Harry occasionally caught glimpses of the three applicants he'd pegged as having what it took to pass the captain's tests and noted that they were the only other applicants aside from himself that were not affected by the terrible storm.

For three days the terrible storm raged and took its anger out on the small vessel that had foolishly strayed into its clutches and those three days were the longest days of Harry's life as he put to good use everything that Katzo, Jacob, Gunter, and the captain had taught him about sailing. Not once during those three days did Harry stop long enough to sleep; the wizard surviving on Mulled Stone's Blood and Stone's Teeth to keep his body from keeling over in exhaustion as he did the work of three deck hands to make up for those crew members that were unable to function.

Harry was also the only one brave enough (or stupid enough) to venture above deck during the course of the storm to pass messages, secure ropes that had been torn free, or fetch tools and things for the other crew members. Of course, the only reason that Harry felt confident enough to venture above deck was due to the liberal application of a spell called the Sailor's Savior; a specialized, two-part sticking charm that was applied to both the weather decking and to the bottom of a sailor's shoes. Once both spells were applied, they would allow a person to safely travel across a waterlogged deck without risking being swept off over the side by the violent pitching of the ship or an errant wave of sea water.

Harry had discreetly cast the deck portion of the spell just before the storm hit and renewed the spell on the bottom of his shoes each time he ventured out into the storm. Several other spells he'd learned from the Seafarer's Grimoire had also been put to good use; allowing the teen to handle problems that would normally take anywhere from three to five men to accomplish.

In a way, it was the storm that allowed Harry to put his recently learned knowledge to work as he'd never have been able to openly cast any of those spells in front of the crew or passengers. It was a real life test of his new found skills and he passed with flying colors thanks to the many months of hard training he'd put himself through alongside of what he'd been taught by the crew members.

Harry had never felt so alive as he did while he figuratively thumbed his nose at Mother Nature's vengeance.

* * *

**Definitions:** Nautical Terms

Batten down the hatches – the process of securing open doors or lose items during inclement weather  
Bilge – the section at the bottom of the hull of a ship or boat where water collects  
Bowsprit – a spar (or pole) affixed to the prow/bow of the boat that is used as an anchor point for the forestay (a piece of standard rigging that helps hold the mast from falling backwards).  
Bulwarks – the part of the ship's side that extends above the level of the weather deck or main deck  
Carrack – is a three or four-masted ship that was developed in the fourteen hundreds by the Portuguese  
Crow's nest – an alternate name for the masthead  
Main deck – the uppermost deck of the ship that extends from the bow to the stern  
Masthead – the platform near the top of the mainmast on which a lookout will sit in order to get the best view  
Port of call – another name for the various destinations that a ship stops at  
Quarterdeck – the aft or aftermost deck on a ship  
Ratlines – permanent rope ladders that run from the bulwarks to the top of the masts that allow the crew to easily access the topmasts and yards; they usually look much like thick, wide weave nets.  
Rigging – the technical name for the masts and lines on ships and other sailing vessels  
Weather deck – those parts of the deck that are exposed to the weather

**Notes:**

Character heights:

Harry – 157.5cm or approximately 5ft 2in.  
Kurapika – 171cm or approximately 5ft 7in.  
Leorio – 193cm or approximately 6ft 4in.  
Gon – 154cm or approximately 5ft even.


	7. Destination x and x Disembarkation

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter Seven: Destination x and x Disembarkation

On the afternoon of the third day out of Whale Island Harbor, there was a lull in the storm. Harry took that opportunity to duck into his tent to check on Flip and Flop (both of whom were fine) as well as check his supplies for anything that could help those that had fallen ill; unfortunately, most magical medicines were not muggle friendly because they needed the drinker's magic to act as a catalyst for the magic in the potions and to stabilize the effects of the potions so that the drinker doesn't end up poisoned. The large supply of peppermint humbugs he had, on the other hand, would be useful to settle the stomachs of those who were still feeling queasy.

Harry grabbed the large sack of peppermint candies and left his tent to start distributing the candies; automatically heading for the berth that the crew shared on the other side of the hold (the wizard felt that it was more important to get the crew back up on their feet before worrying about the applicants). When he finally did make it around to hand out some of the candies to the applicants, he found Gunter tending to the sickest individuals and Kurapika, the tall man, and the kid all missing. Gunter let him know that the captain had called for those three not that long ago and Harry suspected that the captain would be giving them one last final test to decide whether or not to pass them.

The wizard almost wish he would have been called to that meeting as well; if only to see how they reacted to the prying questions that he knew the captain would ask them about their reasons for applying to take the Hunter's Exam. Then again, he didn't think that he'd have been comfortable answering those questions in front of any other applicants. He'd had a hard enough time answering them when he'd been alone with the captain; struggling to answer truthfully while not speaking about magic or getting into the real reason he'd fled England. In the end, he'd simply told the man that he was searching for his place in life and left it at that.

Before Harry could give the matter much more thought, Katzo's voice echoed through the hold as he loudly called all able bodied crewmen to the deck. Harry tucked his bag of candies into the mokeskin pouch he still wore around his neck and dashed out on the heels of Gunter. When they made it topside, Harry swore out loud as his eyes fell upon the water spigot that had formed; the storm had just gone from bad to ugly. Grim determination filled him as he dashed forward to help furl the sails in order to prevent the violent winds springing up around them from tearing the sails, snapping the lines, or dragging the ship straight into the dancing water spigot.

His wand made its way into his hand even as he grabbed hold of the nearest rope and began hauling on the ropes with the rest of the crew that had made it up onto the deck (more than a few of them only standing thanks to Harry giving them something to settle their stomachs enough that they could soldier through the rest of their discomfort. Every few minutes, Harry would flick his wand towards the shoes of the sailors around him in order to cast the second half of the Sailor's Savor Spell to keep them from losing their footing as the ship was once more tossed about by the storm.

He'd only been on deck for roughly twenty minutes when a cry rang out as Katzo was swept overboard when the forward boom snapped and the broken piece slammed into the man. The kid that had befriend Katzo three days ago let out a cry of distress before he took a page out of Harry's book of stupidest stunts ever as he threw himself overboard after Katzo. Harry cursed once more as he dropped the rope he'd been helping to haul in and brought his wand up to cast the Safety-Line Spell causing a looped rope to burst forth from the end of Harry's wand and cut through the air to loop around the kid's left foot.

Harry waited until the kid had wrapped his arms around Katzo before he pulled up and back on his wand with both hands to tighten the rope and haul the pair back towards the ship so that Kurapika and the tall man could grab hold of the kid's legs and help haul him back up onto the ship along with Katzo (both of the older applicants had jumped over the side after Katzo and missed; only saving themselves from a watery grave by grabbing onto the bulwark as they went over). Harry broke the rope free from the tip of his wand with a flick of his wrist and quickly hid his wand even as he began hauling up the slack in the rope as several other crew members rushed to help the group while the rest finished furling the last of the sails.

Once all four individuals were safely on the deck, Harry flopped down onto the deck in exhaustion and stared dully at the water spigot that was steadily disappearing into the distance as the ship was steered clear of the storm. Gunter eventually hauled him up off the deck and escorted him down to his berth and gave him orders to get at least twelve hours of sleep before daring to show his face above decks again. Harry absently nodded in response and mechanically dropped to his knees to crawl inside of his tent. He managed to crawl several feet into the tent before he dropped down onto the brown carpet that covered the floor and passed out on the floor; the teen too exhausted to care that he was sleeping on the floor.

The exhausted wizard would end up sleeping through the remainder of the twenty-first and through all of the twenty-second before he woke up just after dawn on the twenty-third to find himself wearing clean pajamas and tucked into the bed in his bedroom. He sat up and stared around the room in confusion as the last thing he remembered was passing out on the sitting room floor and he knew that no one else on the ship could enter his tent so he really had no clue as to how he'd gotten into bed. Clarification was provided for the teen when a relieved Dobby popped into the room with a tray piled high with all of Harry's breakfast favorites.

"Dobby is being very happy that Master Harry is feeling better now," Dobby stated with a grin before he turned serious and scolded Harry in the next breath. "Master Harry is scaring his Dobby when Dobby felt Master Harry's magic almost disappear completely. You is not allowed to go away and leave Dobby all alone and without a good and proper master."

"I'm sorry, Dobby; there was a huge storm and half the crew grew ill so I had to help keep the ship afloat. I promise that I'll try to be more careful in the future," Harry softly stated as the elf slid the tray he held onto the nightstand before throwing himself onto Harry. "I really appreciate you taking care of me while I recovered and I know without a doubt that you are the world's best house elf."

Dobby blushed and ducked his head before he let go of Harry, moved the breakfast tray from the nightstand to Harry's lap, and popped away to finish whatever it was he was in the middle of doing when he'd felt Harry wake up. Harry chuckled weakly before he dug into the food sitting before him; the teen easily finished every last bite of the enormous meal (the wizard had needed the food to replace the energy and magic he'd expended during the course of the storm and while he was sleeping off his exhaustion). After finishing, he drifted off back to sleep while his core finished recharging now that it had the fuel it needed.

He woke up again around sunset to find another overflowing plate of food waiting for him, a roll of parchment, a bottle of ink, a quill, and a short missive from Bill with a demand for a status report; Dobby had apparently kept Bill informed of Harry's condition after the elf had found him on the floor in a critical state of exhaustion. Harry devoured the food first before he complied with Bill's request; going into great detail about the severity and length of the storm they'd been caught up in, the terrible state of half the crew and nearly all of the applicants, and the various tasks he'd performed during the course of the storm. He ended it with a detailed description of the daring rescue he'd helped pull off with the only other three applicants that had been able to ride out the storm.

Dobby turned up to collect both the letter and the empty tray the instant Harry finished. Harry sighed as he expected to get yelled at in return for the reckless way he'd pushed himself during the storm but Harry knew he would do it again in a heartbeat if it became necessary. He then got up to take a shower and change into clean breeches so that he could put in an appearance topside to let the crew know he was still alive. He pinned a short note for Dobby to let him know that he'd be back in a bit (in case the elf returned while he was out) that he left on the nightstand before he stepped into the living room.

The teen was nearly mobbed by the two Sea Eagles the moment they saw him; both birds had not seen much of him over the past five or six days. Harry spent several minutes lavishing them with attention and feeding them treats before he shooed them through the door first and followed them out. Harry then climbed to his feet and made his way to the door as the two birds waddled along in his wake (Harry still felt far too weak to carry them right that moment). He led the two birds towards the hatch opening up onto the deck and let them out first so that they could stretch their wings for the first time in several days.

Harry stepped out a second later and immediately found himself swept up into a hug by an emotional Katzo who babbled out a heartfelt thanks for helping to save him before the man vanished again; leaving behind a bemused teen. Harry was next accosted by Jacob and Gunter who both slapped him on the back once they made certain he was still in one piece. Jacob then congratulated Harry on giving into his more human side twice during the tail end of the storm; Gunter had diligently reported Harry's use of swear words during that final half hour.

Harry was then sternly told to rest for the next three days and to not even think about doing any training or lifting anything heavier than a spoon. Jacob even went so far as to order Harry to drop half of the weight from his bracers for the same length of time; Gunter gravely revealing that Harry had been ash gray and trembling like a leaf when he'd sent Harry off to rest in the wake of his helping to rescue Katzo two and a half days earlier.

A few more of the crew members greeted him warmly and stated their pleasure over seeming him up and about again as they passed near him while tending to their duties. Harry thanked them all for their concern before he continued on his way; the teen looking to prop himself up against the bulwark while he enjoyed the evening breeze. The captain soon joined him at the rail and the two of them stood in companionable silence alternately watching the stars and the two eagles fishing in silence for several minutes before the old man addressed the teen.

"We'll be making one last side trip to clear out the trash before we head to Dolle Harbor; the closest harbor to this year's Examination site. We should reach Dolle Harbor by the thirty-first."

"That's only a week away," Harry commented in some surprise.

"Aye."

"It feels weird to think I'll be getting off the ship in a week's time; I've been sailing with you for so long now that it almost seems as if I've been sailing all of my life. There were even times when it seemed as if there would never be an end to the voyage."

"You took to the life of a sailor like you were born to it lad," the captain fondly remarked before he turned to study the teen for several minutes. When he finished with the inspection, he solemnly offered, "Whether you pass or fail the Exam, you'll always be welcome aboard the Kaijinmaru; either as a passenger or as part of the crew."

"Thank you; that means a lot to me," Harry replied softly as he offered the man a smile. "The Kaijinmaru has become something of a home for me over the past six months and knowing I can return no matter what is truly a gift. It might take me a few years to come back to visit for a while but you can guarantee that Flip and Flop with drop by with a letter every now and then so that I can keep in touch with everyone."

"The matching menaces are welcome to stop by and stir up a little trouble as often as they like if it means hearing from you and hearing all about your latest adventures."

"I'll be sure to teach them new pranks between deliveries."

"I look forward to the entertainment they are sure to provide," the captain laughed as he slapped Harry on the back. "For now, why don't you go grab something to eat before they empty the mess, gaki; you're still looking peaked. I'll keep an eye on your feathered friends and have one of the crew let them back below decks when they're finished hunting so you don't have to worry about them."

"Aye, aye, captain," Harry fired back as he crisply saluted the man before making his way back towards the hatch.

Harry would spend his last eight days aboard the Kaijinmaru simply lounging about, hanging out with the friends he'd made amongst the crew, or lightly exercising once he'd fully recovered. The reason his full training hadn't resumed was two-fold; he'd barely just recovered from driving himself into the ground and there were only a handful of days left until he entered the Hunter's Exam and the last thing he wanted to do was go into the exam exhausted and sore. He'd suspended his magical training for the same reasons, though he still read through a handful of his books when he had a few hours here and there.

During the evenings, when he'd previously worked on his spell casting, Harry spent his time trimming the bottom two inches off of his invisibility cloak, stitching up the new hemline, and turning the piece he'd cut off into a snug sleeve to fit over his wand in order to hide the focus in plain sight so he could use the wand without drawing attention to it. The tip side of the sleeve would be left open to allow his magic to leave the wand unhindered and end at the point where the handle met the wand rod. He then fashioned another shorter sleeve that was attached to the first sleeve and made to cover the half of the handle that was closest to the wand rod.

The bottom half of the handle was left uncovered so that there was less of a chance for him to lose track of the wand completely if he set it down somewhere. The last thing he did was drill a hole through the handle a half an inch from the end and threaded a short leather cord through it. Once the cord was tied off, it was about eight inches in length with a loop at the end that was just large enough for Harry to loop it over his wrist to prevent his wand from being summoned from him or dropped during a fight. It also gave him a means of quickly and easily drawing the wand from beneath his left bracer where he still stored the wand when he wasn't using it.

The remaining section he'd cut free from his cloak was then folded up and tucked away in case he found a use for it later down the road or needed to replace the sleeve he'd made to hide his wand.

His next task was to painstakingly wrap the bejeweled hilt of Gryffindor's Sword with strips of plain leather in order to disguise the ornate nature of the weapon least would-be-thieves think to steal it from him. The blade was deadly thanks to the basilisk venom the goblin forged blade had absorbed; one little nick was all it would take to kill a person (Harry had tested it on a few rats he'd caught aboard the ship over the course of the voyage – they'd died almost instantly even if he gave them nothing more than the equivalent of a paper cut). The scabbard he'd purchased to hold the blade (to help prevent accidents) was then strapped to the back of his pack-trunk just beside the right shoulder strap where the blade would be close at hand if he should need it.

The rest of his time was spent sorting through all of his belongings that had migrated from his trunk to his tent and packing up those items he wanted to have close at hand back into his trunk while those that he wasn't likely to need during the exam were left in the tent. He also made a list of items he asked Dobby to have Bill purchase for him (which were mostly new clothes to account for the growth spurts he'd gone through during the past six months and food; Harry had slipped extra food in the galley's larder any time that the ship's supplies started to run low just before they reached their next stop).

The only two nights he didn't spend holed up in his tent were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when he celebrated the holiday with the crew. Christmas Eve would mark the first, last, and only time that Harry would let Jacob and Gunter talk him into drinking with the others. Harry had spent most of Christmas Day feeling crappy due to the hangover he had ended up with after the two men had gotten him soused. Thankfully, they'd still been at sea at the time or Harry was pretty certain that he'd have woken up to find himself in an unfamiliar woman's bed.

Boxing Day saw all of the disqualified applicants being dropped off while the crew picked up supplies to replace those that were damaged or lost during the storm. Harry was glad to see them go as most of them had been rude, arrogant tossers that reminded him far too much of his cousin and Malfoy. On the other hand, the ship felt eerily empty now that there was only the crew and three additional passengers aside from himself on the ship.

All too soon the Kaijinmaru was pulling into Dolle Harbor and the life Harry had made for himself aboard the carrack came to an abrupt end. Numbness settled over the wizard as he fully dressed himself for the first time in months; pulling on a snug fitting white t-shirt, a comfortably loose pair of washed out blue jeans, a pair of socks, and the dueling boots that Bill had given him for his birthday. He then belted on his weighted practice sword (the wooden sword a weapon in its own right), checked his bracers, pulled on the dueling gloves, and slipped into his dueling cloak (leaving the buttons undone for now so that the cloak framed his body and allowed him to easily access his sword if he needed to protect himself).

Harry didn't recognize his own reflection when he caught sight of himself in the full length mirror that hung on the back of his bedroom door; he looked far more like a young man and far less like the young waif he used to be. The wizard didn't dwell on the changes he'd gone through (both physically and mentally) as he strode out of the bedroom, collected Flip and Flop from their perches, and snagged his pack-trunk. The teen crawled out of the tent two minutes later and dismantled the magical accommodations so he could pack it up and strap it back onto the bottom of his trunk. He then shouldered his pack and made his way topside.

Just before he reached the hatch, Harry glanced back over his shoulder and took one last look at the hallway that led back down to the mess hall. He then squared his shoulders and scrambled up onto the deck where he sent Flip and Flop off to explore the island in the hopes that they would be able to spot the gathering point for the Hunter Exam applicants. He let his eyes follow their flight for several minutes before he turned his gaze to the Kaijinmaru to permanently lock the memory of his traveling home into his mind. The wizard then reluctantly made his way to where the captain was leaning against the bulwark beside the rope ladder draped over the side of the ship.

"What a terrible sight; you're looking all respectable like again, gaki," Jacob complained as he and Gunter fell into step beside Harry. "Just when I thought there was hope for you yet, you go and dash my hopes to pieces."

"You're just jealous that you don't look this good," Harry quipped back with a laugh as he elbowed the older man in the side.

"At least he no longer looks like the drowned rat we picked up back in Portsmouth," Gunter commented with a grin as the three of them came to a stop just a few feet away from the ladder.

"True… he's missing something though," Jacob commented before he reached up and took off the charcoal gray Greek fisherman's hat that he wore. He took a moment to knock the dust free from the hat before he placed it on Harry's head with the brim pointed off to the left and canted at a slight downwards angle. "Much better; now you look like a proper sailor taking a week's shore leave."

"That's your favorite hat," Harry protested weakly as he reached up to give the hat back.

"Keep it kid; it suits you and hopefully each time you wear it, you'll remember all of us trapped here on this dingy old ship," Jacob insisted as he dropped his hand on Harry's head to prevent him from taking off the hat.

"I still think he's missing something," Gunter interjected just a moment later. "Aha! I know; every sailor needs a proper sash to keep his breeches up." Harry snorted but didn't protest as Gunter threaded a bright red sash through his belt loops and tied it so that the ends hung down beside the sheath of Harry's practice sword. "Now he's ready to hit the town."

"Thanks, guys," Harry murmured thickly as he impulsively hugged the two men that had taken him under their wing back in July and become something of a cross between friends and mentors over the course of the voyage. "I'm going to miss you both."

"We'll miss you too, squirt," Jacob remarked with a fond smile. "Make certain you keep up your training; can't have you slacking off and forgetting everything we had to drill into that thick head of yours."

"I will."

"Good! Now get out of here and go show them what you're made of," Gunter ordered as he gave Harry a shove towards the ladder.

Harry laughed as he stepped up beside the captain who clapped him on the back as he ordered, "Take care of yourself out there, gaki; and don't forget that you'll always have a place here on the Kaijinmaru."

"Aye, aye, captain," Harry promised as he grinned up at the man.

"I already informed Gon but I don't know if you intend to travel with the others or not, so I'll tell you as well. When you get into town; head for the giant cedar over yonder. It's a shortcut to where you need to go."

Harry glanced towards the tree in question and nodded before he vaulted over the bulwark and landed on the dock with a soft thump. He glanced back up towards the deck a heartbeat later and waved at the three men peering down at him. The wizard then reluctantly turned away from the ship and made his way along the pier towards the shore. Katzo dashed up to him as he stepped down onto solid ground for the first time since September. The man pressed a boxed meal into Harry's hands and wished him luck before returning to the ship. Harry glanced backwards with a lopsided grin that was more than a little sad as he waved to the others one last time before making his way towards the main thoroughfare.

He made it to the street just in time to see the tall applicant that had arrived on the Kaijinmaru with him take off after Kurapika and the kid in the direction of the cedar. Harry took a few steps in their direction as the captain's advice rang in his ears, only to stop when Flip dropped down onto his left shoulder holding a scrap of paper in his talons. Harry liberated the paper from the eagle and read what was on it before he crossed over to the large map of the island that sat directly across from where he was standing. After studying the map for a moment, Harry decided he'd make his own shortcut to Zaban City (his destination according to the flyer that Flip had brought him).

Harry then ducked into a nearby alley to grab his Firebolt from his mokeskin pouch and tuck the boxed meal Katzo had given him into the pouch before cast a Notice-Me-Not Charm over himself and climbed into his broom. He took a few minutes to apply a light sticking charm to the hat he'd been given (to keep it from getting blown off) and shoo Flip from his shoulder before he shot up into the sky until he was far enough above the ground that he'd be mistaken as a bird if he was still spotted by someone on the ground despite the spell. Flip and Flop both began circling around him a moment later (the two eagles not affected by the spell due to their bond with him).

"Lead the way to Zaban City, you two," Harry ordered after taking a moment to simply enjoy the feeling of being in the air once more.

The trio made it to Zaban City in less than two hours and Harry lazily drifted over the city for several minutes in order to study the layout before he dropped down into another empty alley, returned his broom to his mokeskin pouch, and dropped the spell that had been hiding his presence. Flop dropped down to land on his shoulder at that point and Harry headed for the main thoroughfare while Flip tracked them from the air. As he meandered through the crowded street that was lined with market stalls, Harry studied the people around him in an effort to see if he could spot another applicant that might know where they needed to go next.

He eventually spotted a man that he immediately pegged as a bully striding along purposefully through the crowded street without bothering to glance at the stalls lining the street. The man was rather heavyweight, had short brown hair, wore a sleeveless blue shirt over a long sleeved white shirt and long white pants, and carried a bag strung over his head and right shoulder. Harry followed him along the street from a distance and he soon led the wizard to a large courtyard before he lost him in the crowds that filled the area.

Clicking his tongue impatiently, Harry studied the surrounding buildings trying to determine which one he would have been most likely to enter based upon his previous path before he systematically began checking all of the buildings when he couldn't pinpoint a clear destination. After well over three hours of fruitless searching (the time spent wandering inside of a number of different buildings), Harry huffed under his breath before he sent Flip and Flop to look for clues to where he needed to go next while he made his way to a small restaurant tucked in between two rather huge buildings.

He entered the door and paused for a moment to give his glasses time to adjust to the change in light before he studied the customers seated about the dining area. Harry then made his way over to the bar that was butted right up against the open kitchen and took a seat as he studied the menu on the back wall. The wizard eventually ordered a large soda and a light snack to take the edge off of his hunger while he gave his feathered companions time to search.

Over the course of the next hour, Harry absently noted the steady inflow of small groups of customers coming in and very few of them leaving despite the fact that the restaurant never actually filled up. Once he realized something was going on, Harry started paying closer attention to the groups that came in and directly addressed the chef on duty rather than sitting down at a table. It didn't take him long to figure out that the spokesperson for each group ordered the exact same thing (though the number of orders they placed varied based upon the number of other individuals in the group) before vanishing into the 'back room' and that only the spokesman would return a few minutes later and leave.

Harry snorted to himself under his breath after he started taking a closer look at the people that made up the groups and found that he'd stumbled upon the entrance to the gathering point for the Hunter Exam applicants by sheer dumb luck. The teen finished his food and left the restaurant after that revelation. He then whistled for Flip and Flop to return to him before he ducked into another darkened alley. While he waited for his eagles, Harry dug his invisibility cloak out and draped it over his arm before he cast a Muffling Charm and a Notice-Me-Not Charm over himself.

He would place the same charms over the two birds (keyed to him so he wouldn't be caught by the spells and lose track of them since he couldn't quite sense them the way they could sense him) the moment they landed on their preferred perches before drawing the invisibility cloak over all three of them. The fifteen year old then made his way back to the restaurant and waited for the next obvious Hunter applicant to arrive so he could follow him (or her) inside. He didn't have to wait very long as a hard looking woman with long scarlet hair tied back in a messy ponytail with a yellow bow wearing large sunglasses and carrying a rifle on her back approached accompanied by a rather forgettable looking man that Harry thought he recognized as one of the earlier spokesmen.

Harry slipped inside of the restaurant on the heels of the pair, listened to the man give the password yet again, and then followed them into the backroom which turned out to be a lift that would drop them down a hundred stories beneath the surface. The spokesman left at that point, leaving Harry alone with the woman as the lift began moving. Once they reached the bottom, Harry let the woman exit first before he slipped out after her and found himself in an underground tunnel that kind of reminded him of the Chamber of Secrets.

There were well over seventy other applicants already standing or sitting around in the tunnel; including the fat man that Harry had been following earlier. His attention was then returned to the woman he'd snuck in behind as she was addressed by a short green… being and handed a badge with the number eighty printed on it. A glance around at the other applicants showed that they too had been handed a badge and Harry assumed that the numbers on the badge represented the order in which they had arrived; that theory was confirmed when the next sixteen people to exit the lift after Harry were given tags with ascending numbers.

After number ninety-six accepted his tag, Harry pulled off his cloak and made certain no one was paying any attention to him before he dropped the spells on him (leaving the two birds safely hidden) before approaching the green man-being to receive a badge. He received number ninety-seven after the man got over his surprise at Harry's sudden appearance as the man (or was he a sentient magical being?) had not seen him arrive (not unexpected since Harry had snuck in).

The wizard then took the first opportunity to disappear beneath his cloak once again and reapply the spells when Harry noticed the bully he'd followed earlier making his way over to him. The fifteen year old had no desire to be the man's target though and had used the crowd to vanish; literally. Harry had then climbed up onto the pipes that ran across the ceiling of the tunnel and made himself comfortable as he waited for the Exam to start.

As he waited, Harry caught a small glimpse of a white haired kid joining those underground just twenty minutes after he had taken his badge. Harry was tempted to go introduce himself to yet another kid taking the Exam but in the end decided to remain where he was due to the bully from earlier approaching the younger boy; Harry still had no desire to have a run in with the obvious bully.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Gaki – brat

**Definitions:** Nautical Terms

Boom – a type of spar along the bottom edge of a fore and aft rigged sail (a sail that sits along the line of the keel instead of perpendicular to it).  
Carrack – is a three or four-masted ship that was developed in the fourteen hundreds by the Portuguese  
Disembarkation – the process of disembarking; to get out of a vehicle or craft or to go ashore  
Hatch – the door or covering through which one accesses the lower decks (the opening itself called the hatchway)  
Shore leave – a sailor's landside vacation


	8. Under x Over x Through

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter Eight: Under x Over x Through

After the first two hours of waiting, Harry grew bored and dug into his portable library in order to grab a book to read; this time he selected the Dueler's Grimoire. He also pulled out the boxed meal that Katzo had given to him as he was growing hungry again. Harry opened the box to find several small loaves of fresh bread (sliced in half lengthwise), a selection of sliced meats and cheeses, several apples, a large packet of smoked salmon, a crock of butter patties, and a bottle of orange juice; Katzo had packed him enough food for at least three meals plus something for the matching menaces (the older man had probably thought that Harry had no edible supplies on hand).

Harry smiled at the man's thoughtfulness as he built himself a buttered roast beef and Swiss cheese sandwich. Flip and Flop happily accepted two strips of dried salmon each that they ripped to shreds and devoured while Harry slowly worked his way through his sandwich and read through the introduction of the Dueler's Grimoire. Every so often, the teen would pull his eyes away from his book to scan the growing crowd below in order to assess the other applicants that had reached the starting point of the Exam. He was not surprised to find a large number of sadistic bullies, ruthless criminals, skilled assassins, and other powerful individuals mingling and meandering about the sealed off section of underground tunnel.

He knew, just by watching them, that most of the individuals gathered were all dangerous people in their own rights and he wondered how he was going to hold his own when he was surrounded by people that wouldn't hesitate to kill or maim their competition. While he had been rather ignorant of what was involved in the Hunter's Exam when he first boarded the Kaijinmaru back in June, he had learned enough from the crew and various applicants aboard the ship to know that there was a fierce competition involved since so few Hunter Licenses were actually awarded each year. He also knew that rookie applicants stood far less of a chance of passing the Exam than those that had participated in at least two or three exams.

A fierce grin slid across Harry's face as he felt his Gryffindor side clamoring for the thrill of the challenge while his no longer buried Slytherin side urged him to proceed with caution. His recently awakened Ravenclaw side wasn't silent either, as that part of him analyzed his fellow applicants and listed off the spells that would be most useful in any number of dangerous situations. His inner Hufflepuff was currently napping after all of the hard work he'd put into his training over the past six months but he'd add in his two cents on the matter later.

When his inner clock let him know that it was supper time (and therefore after nightfall), Harry slipped off his pack and dug into his portable larder to grab something a bit more substantial to eat than another sandwich. He did give the two eagles the remainder of the dried salmon though, before he tucked the rest of what Katzo had given him into the trunk so that it would not spoil. After he'd eaten, Harry spent another hour reading before he turned in for the night; trusting Flip and Flop to wake him if trouble came looking for him or if the Exam started sometime during the night.

Unlike the majority of applicants crowded into the tunnel, Harry slept peacefully through the night as he didn't have to worry about being attacked while his eyes were closed.

He woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and spent the first two hours of the day underground exercising; running through the various exercises that Jacob and Gunter had taught him (bar those that required equipment he didn't have on hand). After that he ate breakfast and fed the birds before he spent another hour reading while his food was digested. He then spent half of the morning teaching himself a few of the more interesting dueling spells he'd found in the Dueler's Grimoire (which only involved memorizing the incantations and wand movements for now; he'd practice casting the spells when there was less of a chance of drawing attention to himself).

The rest of the morning was then spent pranking a number of the applicants below alongside of Flip and Flop; teaching the birds how to play a new version I-Spy. The idea of the game was for the two birds to steal the item that Harry picked out based upon the little hints he gave the two birds. Retrievals of incorrect guesses earned each bird a thirty second penalty in which they had to sit facing the wall (so they couldn't search for the item) and correct guesses earned them a treat. Needless to say, all three of them enjoyed the game as they sewed confusion amongst the crowd below and irritated the selected targets (each one of them bullies) to no end.

The game also honed the two eagles' skills; training them to recognize targets with very little information, improving the timing, speed, and accuracy of their attacks, and helping them learn how to move more effectively in places with limited space.

When the two birds got tired, Harry skipped lunch to practice his sword stances and forms, gymnastics, and acrobatics to help him get used to moving about in his dueling cloak while wearing his pack after he removed his invisibility cloak (but left the spells hiding him in place). He'd only been practicing for an hour when his fellow passengers from the Kaijinmaru arrived. Harry was actually kind of glad he'd not followed them to the cedar based on how exhausted and battered they looked upon arriving. Knowing that they'd not have that good of a chance of passing the Exam if they didn't have the energy to finish, Harry dug into his pack and pulled out the boxed food Katzo had given him and added three bottles of water, a bit more meat, a couple of oranges, and a tin of biscuits to the box.

He then scribbled a quick note onto the outside of the box, tied the box closed with a bit of rope, handed it to Flop, and dropped the spells hiding the larger male so that he could deliver the box to Kurapika. Harry sniggered into his hands when Flop's sudden appearance startled more than a few of the applicants as he swooped down from the pipes. Kurapika immediately recognized the sea eagle and glanced about in surprise even as he held up his arm for the large bird to perch on. The blonde then took the package from the eagle before shifting Flop to his shoulder when it became apparent that the bird had no intention of leaving.

Harry knew the exact instant that Kurapika had read the note he'd written as the other teen had burst out laughing as he opened the box and divided the food and water between the three of them. The wizard considered joining the three of them when he noticed the fat bully he'd followed the previous day accosting the group (the man apparently making the rounds amongst the applicants). Figuring that he could catch up with his former sparring partner later, Harry resumed his training while keeping a small part of his attention on the applicants below since he hoped that the Exam might start soon.

The fifteen year old had actually long since finished his training and had pulled out _Treasure Island_ to pass the time when the examiner finally arrived to start the Exam.

Three hours after Kurapika and the other two arrived, a funny sounding buzzer began sounding and the moment it cut off a dull rumble filled the room as the stone wall opposite of the elevator entrance began rising up into the ceiling to reveal an odd looking man with short purple hair that flared out slightly at the bottom, a thin dark brown mustache that curled up at the ends, and no apparent mouth.

Harry couldn't decide if the new guy was weirder looking than the little green man that had handed out the badges or not. Shaking away his musings, Harry focused on what the man was saying as he explained that the entrance period for new applicants had ended and that the exam had officially started (though how he could talk with no mouth was a complete mystery).

"Who are you?" one of the applicants demanded once the man had finished his short speech.

"I am Satotz, the Phase One Examiner; you must follow me to reach Phase Two. This is the exam's First Phase," the mouthless man stated as he began leading the other applicants deeper into the tunnel.

Harry dithered on his perch upon the pipe for a few minutes before he took out his broom again and flew after the group with Flip perched in the handle behind him near the bristles; keeping well above the rest of the applicants' heads while staying low enough to avoid running into anything hanging down or protruding from the ceiling. Just a few minutes after Harry caught up to the group, the man started moving faster, forcing everyone to start running in order to keep up with him and Harry was glad he'd chosen to fly since he wouldn't fancy getting knocked down and trampled over by the other applicants.

Flop joined him for a moment before he sent the larger eagle to keep pace with the examiner so that the eagle could visibly mark the man (so Harry wouldn't lose sight of the man). After the first two hours of straight flying at such slow speeds, Harry began to grow bored. He was tempted to race on ahead of the entire group but with the number of side tunnels he's seen opening up off of the main tunnel that they were being led down, he couldn't risk missing a turn off and being disqualified because he got lost and couldn't keep up.

So, after some fancy spell work and timing to allow Flip and Flop to switch places (so the larger male could rest for a bit) he began lapping the crowd; flying up one side and back down the other. The tight turns needed to turn around in the tunnel without losing any speed needing his full attention in order to avoid crashing into the walls so he had to pay attention to what he was doing.

Sometime after the third hour, Harry finally began to notice that people were dropping behind and dropping to the floor in exhaustion (their stamina and endurance far too low). Harry briefly wondered if the examiners would consider his flying through the task to be cheating before he recalled that the man had only said that they needed to follow him; he didn't say they had to run after him. A glance below to see the white haired kid that he'd had noticed the night before riding a skateboard made Harry feel even less guilty.

He then marveled at the idea of two kids taking the Hunter's Exam and he wondered what their reasons for seeking their Hunter's License were. Despite sailing with the dark haired kid for two weeks, Harry hadn't had any chances to really interact with him due to the severe storm they'd been caught up in, the days he'd spent sleeping off his exhaustion, and the fact that he'd spent most of his last days aboard the carrack holed up in his tent or hanging out with the crew. Heck, he didn't even know the kid's name (not that he knew the tall man's name either and he'd been aboard the ship even longer).

His thoughts turned introspective at that point as Harry recalled the four years he'd attended Hogwarts and the various misadventures he'd been through during those years. Looking back now, he wondered how the hell he'd even survived to reach his fifteenth birthday due to some of the seriously deadly situations he'd been caught up in. The basilisk and the bloody Tournament in particular had come the closest to killing him. That knowledge made him wonder if that had been Dumbledore intentions all along; the bearded berk wanted him dead, after all, and what better way to kill him off than to have Harry get involved in any dangerous situations that arose.

Harry pushed aside his musings after a while so he could once more focus on his surroundings and resume his laps around the applicants below. Every two hours, he'd have Flip and Flop switch places so they could alternately rest to conserve their energy (even though he knew they could fly for long stretches time without stopping). He didn't want to risk either of them growing exhausted though since he really had no idea what else he would be facing over the course of the Exam.

At the eight hour mark, the underground tunnel turned into an underground staircase that Harry assumed led up towards the surface and he wondered if they were getting close to the end of the First Phase. Ceasing his endless circling, Harry flew up to pace the examiner as he studied the staircase for as far as he could see. He then glanced down and to the side of him to study Satotz; noting that the man hadn't slowed his pace once and that he was neither flagging nor sweating despite the fact that he had been running for eight hours just like all of the applicants. Harry then glanced back up to the stairs rising in front of him as the man increased the pace out of the blue.

Five minutes later, Harry left Flop to pace the examiner and shot ahead to see where the stairs led. It only took a matter of seconds for Harry to reach the Firebolt's maximum speed of one hundred and fifty miles per hour and the staircase tunnel became nothing but a blur of dark gray and red as he rocketed past the red emergency lights that lit the tunnel. He exploded out into the starlit night quite unexpectedly some twenty minutes later and Harry pulled up to a stop before he got himself lost over the shadow and fog bathed wilderness that spread out around him.

He took a minute to shake away the knowledge that he'd have turned himself into a Harry pancake if he'd run into a wall at the top of the tunnel instead of a large doorway before he dropped back down to circle around the building that housed the underground staircase. Knowing he'd traveled at least fifty miles in the past twenty minutes, Harry soon realized that it would be several hours before the examiner or any of the applicants caught up to him (if they didn't deviate from their current pace and path).

Having no desire to return to the tunnel or sit out in the open, he quickly decided to set up his tent so that he could grab something to eat, take a quick shower, and contact Dobby to pass along an update to Bill because he wasn't certain he wanted to send off either of the eagles during the middle of the Exam since they were proving to be very helpful. Before he did that, He sent Flip to join Flop in pacing Satotz, so that if the man changed direction before reaching the exit point, one of them could come fetch Harry and lead him to the new path.

Once the eagle was gone, Harry dropped down to land on top of the building that housed the stairs and set up his tent on the flat roof; taking the time to set up a ring of rocks spelled with the Notice-Me-Not Charm to prevent anyone from noticing the tent. Leaving the flap open, so Flip or Flop could enter the tent if they turned up to fetch him, Harry removed the spells that had been hiding him and dropped his broom and pack beside the door where they would be ready and waiting if he had to leave in a hurry. He then stripped out of his clothes and took a shower first before fixing himself a hot meal and a cup of tea.

The wizard would then spend the next five hours cat napping after asking Dobby to pass along his message to Bill about him being out of touch for the duration of the Exam (unless an emergency cropped up). At the end of those five hours, Harry got dressed in a clean change of clothes, packed a light breakfast for later in his mokeskin pouch, and packed up his tent in anticipation of the other applicants reaching him within the hour (if they had kept to the increased pace that Satotz had set). He then recast the spells to hide his presence before he began his morning exercises as the gloom around him began lightening with the rising sun.

Fifteen minutes later, Flip and Flop burst forth from the opening below him followed by the sound of one familiar voice and one unfamiliar voice crying out triumphantly in stereo. Leaning down over the edge of the building, Harry quickly spotted the two youngest applicants descending into an argument about which one of them had reached the finish line first. Harry was half tempted to drop down and tell them both that he'd beat them by at least six hours but he didn't think that would go over well with Satotz; who just happened to be watching the pair argue.

The wizard about fell off the roof laughing when the kids demanded the examiner settle their argument and the man declared the race a tie; the reactions of the two kids over that reply were absolutely hilarious. Harry was still laughing silently when he returned to his morning training as applicants continued to stagger out of the tunnel over the course of the next three hours while Flip and Flop napped after their long night. The door to the tunnel then slammed shut at exactly nine o'clock just as Harry was finishing the breakfast he'd packed himself earlier; locking anyone that had not made it out before then inside of the tunnel.

Harry's attention was soon drawn to Satotz at that point as the man raised his voice just enough so that everyone could hear him as he revealed that the First Phase was not yet over.

"Welcome to the Numere Wetlands also known as Swindler's Swamp," Satotz stated as he gestured to the lowlands behind him as the fog shifted and swirled. "In order to participate in the Second Phase, you must follow me through the wetlands. It is imperative that you remain alert as we cross through the swamp because this place is home to many strange and dangerous creatures that will prey upon the humans that fall into their clever traps. If you wish to survive the crossing, you will need to stay close to me as I lead you to the Second Phase."

Before Harry could decide on whether or not he'd fly through this part of the task as well, there was a commotion below as a man attempted to accuse Satotz of being an imposter as he dragged a humanoid creature into view that looked remarkably like Satotz. Harry knew just from looking at the man that he was not only lying but that he wasn't even human due to the hungry look Harry could see in the man's eyes and the way his two eagles had bristled the moment the man had appeared. There were a number of individuals in the crowd of applicants below that obviously believed the imposter though and just when it looked like the group would be split in two; one of the other applicants attacked both the examiner and the imposter with what looked like playing cards.

The imposter dropped dead seconds later while Satotz blocked the attack by catching the cards. The fifteen year old couldn't stop the shiver that ran up and down his spine as he stared down at the man dressed as a jester; there was just something about the older man that screamed _danger_ to the wizard (in much the same way as Voldemort's presence had screamed _danger_ after he'd risen from the cauldron in the graveyard).

"Do you understand?" Satotz asked as he moved through the crowd to stand over the dead imposter; his voice drawing Harry's attention away from the applicant wearing the number forty-four. "If you can not keep up with me as we pass through the Numere Wetlands, then you will not live to reach the exam's Second Phase. Now, please follow me."

Harry mounted his broom as the man headed straight into the mist filled swamp and softly instructed both Sea Eagles to perch on the back of his broom so they could continue to rest (making certain to recast the needed spells to hide them from the others) before he hurried to catch up with the examiner. It took all of Harry's self control not to turn around and play savior when the first screams began ringing out as the inhabitants of the swamp attacked the applicants. He knew that by the time he reached the people screaming, they'd either already be dead or he'd just get himself lost in the low fog that clung to the wetlands.

There was also the fact that most of the applicants were more than capable of taking care of themselves or they would not have made it this far. He also knew that the applicants would have scattered across the area enough that it would be impossible to save them all and he'd just end up getting himself caught by one of the creatures that lived in the swamp if he lost sight of Satotz. The Gryffindor in him railed against his decision while both his Slytherin and Ravenclaw sides smothered the Gryffindor's protests with their sense of self-preservation and logic.

If not for the six months he'd spent on the Kaijinmaru growing up and learning self-worth, he might have gone back to save as many people as possible despite knowing it would mean failing the Exam or dying. After all, it was one thing to risk his life to save the crew he'd lived and worked with for six months and a completely different matter to risk his life for complete strangers that wouldn't hesitate to slit his throat if his death would gain them an advantage.

To block out the screams ringing in his ears, Harry focused all of his attention on flying directly over the examiner and avoiding all of the obstacles that cropped up as he flew through the fog; namely tree branches, flying creatures, and the fog itself obscuring his vision. More than once, Harry wished he'd learned how to cast a tracking spell as he could have placed one on Satotz to keep track of the man and then he could have followed the man from a far safer height. At least they were traveling at a slow enough pace that Harry could easily avoid anything that popped up in his path (providing that he was paying attention to where he was flying).

Near one in the afternoon, Flip and Flop woke up and took turns hunting the birds that made their home in Swindler's Swamp; one of them flying beside Harry at all times while the other hunted and ate until they'd both managed to eat their fill. As the afternoon waned, the terrain slowly began changing as the invisible path that Satotz was following began rising in elevation until they began moving out of the swamplands and into the lush forest that bordered the Numere Wetlands. The improved visibility as they rose above the level of the clouds allowed Harry to relax enough to scan his surroundings as well as to take note of the leading line of applicants; most of whom were a good twenty meters behind the long-legged examiner.

The steady descent of the sun began to worry Harry though, since it would be far too dangerous to risk flying through the forest at night because it would be far harder to pick out the low hanging tree branches. It turned out that Harry didn't need to worry about flying in the dark though because Satotz came to a stop at long last within a few meters of a towering wall that cut through the forest and turned around to face the direction he'd come from in order to await the applicants. Letting out a soft sigh of relief, Harry dropped down into the forest out of sight and quickly packed away his broom, ended the spells hiding him and his feathered friends, and made his way to where Satotz was waiting at a leisurely stroll several minutes before any of the other applicants arrived.

"Does this mark the end of the First Phase now or are you just taking another short break like you did after exiting the tunnel?" Harry inquired as Flip and Flop dropped down to perch on his left and right shoulder respectively the moment he stopped just a short distance away from the Hunter that he'd been following for over thirty-six hours.

"This is the end of the First Phase, the Second Phase will be taking place just on the other side of the gates," Satotz replied as he scrutinized Harry for several minutes.

"That is excellent news, my companions and I were getting rather bored," Harry replied cheekily as he grinned up at the man. "Could you please tell me how much time we'll have until the next Phase begins?"

"The rest of the applicants will have until sunrise tomorrow morning to join us if they wish to pass the First Phase."

"Thank you, sir," Harry murmured as he moved off to find a place to set up a temporary camp so he could fix himself supper and let his eagles rest through the night as the leading group of applicants arrived.

More than a few surprised, confused, and frustrated glances were cast in Harry's direction as he cheerfully whistled a jaunty tune while he set up his tent and unpacked some of his camping equipment (something he did mostly just for appearance's sake). Eighteen minutes later, Flip and Flop were fast asleep on their individual perches (which now sported fancy brass name plates courtesy of Dobby) and Harry was seated out in front of his tent tending to a cheerful little blaze that was burning away in the small bowl shaped barbeque that he had found in his supplies. Sitting beside him, two thick porterhouse steaks were marinating in steak sauce in a bowl beside a foil wrapped potato, a sauce pan, the ingredients needed to make brown gravy, and a tin kettle filled with water to make a pot of fresh tea.

Longing glances were cast in his direction by the other applicants shortly after he placed his steaks on the grill; the scent of cooking beef carrying on the light breeze. He was given more than a few dirty, resentful looks by those that sought to buy, beg, or steal his food from him; though the applicants were discouraged from actually attacking and harming him by Satotz's presence (the Hunter had made it known that attacking another applicant at this stage in the Exams would see them disqualified). So Harry enjoyed a relatively peaceful meal and tormented his fellow applicants at the same time as he savored each and every bite of both steaks and his gravy smothered baked potato (the bones from his meat being set aside for the birds to pick clean later).

The wizard then removed the grill from his barbeque and tossed on several small dead branches he'd gathered earlier and sprawled out beside the barbeque turned campfire with a book to kill a few hours; the teen enjoying the chance to have a proper camp out for the first time in his life. By that time, the other applicants had taken to ignoring Harry as they either hunted for food in the surrounding forest or claimed a spot to sleep while they could. When the fifteen year old grew bored with reading, he put away his book and dug out a long metal skewer, a bag of marshmallows, a pack of graham crackers, and several bars of Honeydukes' best dark chocolate in order to make s'mores (a rather tasty treat that Gunter had introduced him several months ago).

This time, the scent of warm sugar and chocolate lured a particularly stubborn individual to Harry's little camp. The white haired kid with the skateboard seated himself on said skateboard just a few feet away from Harry without a word. Harry only glanced at him once before he returned his attention to the marshmallow currently puffing up and browning on his skewer. When Harry lifted the swollen treat from the fire and removed it from the skewer using a pair of graham cracker halves with a piece of chocolate set on one side, he felt the kid's eyes following his every move even as a loud stomach growl sounded from the boy.

Harry couldn't resist smirking when he caught sight of the kid drooling from the corner of his eyes as Harry smashed the now gooey marshmallow between the crackers and chocolate. He nearly snickered out loud when the kid let out a quiet moan when Harry bit into the surgery sandwich and got marshmallow and chocolate stuck to the left side of his mouth as the inside of the sandwich oozed out over the side. He took his time finishing the treat and cleaning every last bit of chocolate and marshmallow from his fingers and face before he skewered another marshmallow and held it out over the fire.

"I'm Killua," the kid finally ventured as he composed himself when he finally realized he had been drooling.

"I would have said you were rude," Harry quipped in return as he glanced over at the kid again.

"Why?" Killua asked in honest confusion.

"You didn't ask for permission to join me before you sat down at my fire," Harry dryly pointed out.

"Oh, I didn't think you'd mind if I shared the fire."

Harry snorted as he rotated his marshmallow before retorting, "It's not the fire you want to share and we both know it."

"Was I that obvious?"

"Yes."

"Will you share with me?"

"No."

"I'll pay you."

"Ah, in that case; the answer is definitely no."

"I'll tell Satotz that you attacked me and get you disqualified," Killua threatened petulantly.

"No you won't."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because getting me kicked out of the Exam would mean that I'd be taking my marshmallows and my campfire with me when I leave and you still wouldn't get any of my s'mores."

"Damn."

Harry smirked at the now pouting kid before he set about making his roasted marshmallow into a s'more. He was just getting ready to devour the treat when Killua addressed him again.

"You know, you're being rather rude yourself right now."

"Is that so?"

"Yep; you never introduced yourself to me after I gave you my name."

"You don't say…"

"You're also eating in front of a guest without sharing," Killua smugly pointed out.

"An uninvited guest looking for handouts," Harry fired right back.

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

"I was taught to never offer food to a stray because it will never leave once it knows you'll feed it."

"You're mean," Killua complained as he crossed his arms and pouted again. "And you still haven't told me your name."

"James," Harry grudgingly provided before he turned his attention back to his now cold s'more.

"That's funny; I would have said you were annoying."

"I do aim to please."

"No you don't; else you'd be willing to share."

"Yes I do; just because I'm not pleasing you, doesn't mean that I'm not pleasing myself."

"I hate you."

"And yet you are still sitting in the middle of my camp."

"I'm starving."

"There's an entire forest full of game and edible plants at your back."

"I don't know how to cook."

"Not everything edible in the forest requires cooking."

"You'd send a twelve year old out into a dangerous forest in the middle of the night all alone when he's exhausted and delirious with hunger?"

"You're a persistent little pest; I'll give you that," Harry groused as he finally ate the cold s'more he'd been holding in his hand.

"Does that mean you'll share now?"

"Nope."

"Please…?" Killua begged as the kid gave Harry a puppy-eyed look.

Harry's resolve crumbled the moment he looked into those pleading blue eyes while his inner Hufflepuff was quick to point out that the kid had at least used the word 'please' this time. Sighing, he tossed the brat one of the unopened packs of crackers, a bar of chocolate, and another skewer as he stated, "Fine; but you're roasting your own marshmallows."

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**Definitions:** Nautical Terms

Carrack – is a three or four-masted ship that was developed in the fourteen hundreds by the Portuguese

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**AN: **_*Snickers* I had a ball writing that scene between Harry and Killua... actually, all of the interactions I have written between Harry and Killua have been rather fun.  
_


	9. A x Distasteful x Task

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Nine: A x Distasteful x Task

Harry and Killua sat beside the fire chatting as they roasted marshmallows and baked cored apples with butter, sugar, and cinnamon in the coals until midnight; the two of them quickly growing comfortable with one another's presence once their small battle of wills had ended. They even bonded a bit over the fact that they'd found the First Phase of the Exam rather boring (though Harry didn't admit that his boredom had been due to the fact that he'd flown through the entire marathon). Near midnight, both boys were feeling rather tired and Harry dug out a couple of extra blankets that he let Killua borrow for the night while he used the sleeping bag Bill had purchased for him; the wizard chose not to sleep inside of the tent in case he missed the start of the second task.

He would rise about an hour before dawn; the newness of sleeping out beneath the stars while surrounded by a bunch of strangers making for a less than restful nap. Harry immediately set about cleaning up his camp and putting away the things he'd used the night before; taking the cold barbeque into the tent to vanish the ashes before packing it away. The next thing he did was pick out a selection of fruits and scones for breakfast; making certain to grab enough to share with Killua. The last thing he did before he packed up his tent, was to wake Flip and Flop so he could shoo them outside (unsure whether or not it would be safe for them to travel inside of the tent while it was packed up).

By the time he finished that, most of the applicants that had made it to the gates were awake (if they'd slept at all) and the sky was beginning to lighten as the sun began to peak over the horizon; Killua included. Harry tossed the kid a couple of plums and a scone once he'd gotten his attention (the twelve year old had been in the middle of a staring contest with both eagles).

Killua had the nerve to give him a cheeky grin as he caught the flying food and Harry made it a point mention that he'd always had a soft spot for strays; prompting the younger boy to stick his tongue out at Harry. The wizard laughed as he stretched for a few minutes before he started his morning exercises. Harry had barely finished two sets of jumping jacks when he heard a familiar voice addressing him.

"So I wasn't imagining things back in the tunnel; you really are taking the Exam, James," Kurapika declared with a bit of surprise as the blonde walked up to Harry with the other two passengers from the Kaijinmaru tagging along behind him. "I never once thought you were one of the applicants in all the time that I was sparring with you; I thought you were part of the Kaijinmaru's crew."

"Oh, you made it, Gon," Killua interjected before Harry could reply to Kurapika; the younger boy bounding over to the other kid's side (letting Harry know that it was the kid whose name was Gon, and not the tall man.

"Nah, I wasn't part of the crew; I just helped out in exchange for the training they were giving me and to keep from growing bored during the voyage," Harry stated before he turned to the taller man; his eyes taking in the swollen bruise marring the right side of the man's face. "I don't think you and I were ever introduced during the voyage; I'm James."

"Leorio," the taller man replied with some slight difficulty due to the tightness of the swelling on his right check.

"I have some numbing cream that you can use to dull the pain and reduce the swelling; if your injury is bothering you."

Leorio appeared taken aback for a moment before he offered Harry a pained grin as he replied, "I would have settled for a bag of ice if you had offered it but that cream sounds even better; especially since ice would be a bit difficult to get right about now."

Harry snorted in amusement as he wondered how Leorio would react if Harry grabbed him a bag of ice out of the frozen section of his portable larder as he dug into the potion storage section of his trunk to grab a jar of bruise balm from the top shelf (the external cream one of the few medicinal potions that didn't require a person to have a magical core to use; it would just take longer for the cream to heal the bruise without the internal magic to speed up the process). He tossed the jar to the man before he locked up his trunk, slipped his pack onto his back, and gestured for Flip and Flop to take their usual perches as he noted all of the applicants gathering around Satotz.

"You only need to use enough to lightly coat the entire bruise," Harry instructed Leorio as the three of them followed Killua and Gon over to where the rest of the applicants were milling about. The man nodded and quickly followed Harry's instructions before attempting to pass the jar back to the wizard. Harry shook his head and stated, "You can go ahead and keep that jar; I have plenty more in my pack. You'll need to reapply the cream every six to eight hours until the bruise is gone anyway."

"Thanks," Leorio replied as he stowed the jar in his briefcase.

Nothing more was said as the trio turned their attention to the examiner as Satotz started speaking the moment everyone had given him their attention, "Those of you who arrived before the sun finished rising have successfully passed the First Phase of this year's Hunter's Exam. The Second Phase of the Exam will be taking place inside of the Visca Forest Park in just a few minutes. I shall be taking my leave now; best of luck to you all."

The First Phase examiner then turned around and strode back towards the Numere Wetlands where he was soon swallowed up by the morning fog. Behind them, the large gates leading into the Forest Park swung open with a loud creak to reveal a huge mansion with a large courtyard filled with cooking stations and barbecues.

Seated on a small couch at the foot of the steps leading up into the mansion was a young woman with teal colored hair that was pulled up into five ponytails that were wrapped round with pink ribbons and wearing skimpy shorts, a black bra under a see through midriff shirt, and knee high boots. Sitting on the ground right behind her was a huge, barefoot man that reminded Harry of Hagrid (only far rounder and clean shaven) and he couldn't help but wonder if the man was part giant like Hagrid as well.

"Welcome to the Second Phase of the two hundred eighty-seventh Hunter's Exam," the woman called out as she draped her arms over the back of the couch; an action that drew the eyes of almost every male present to her chest (the three youngest applicants not interested in her physical attributes – Harry had not yet completely recovered from Jacob and Gunter's traumatizing sex-talk and the other two were still in the girls were icky stage). "Will everyone please step inside of the gates? Thank you! My name is Menchi and I am the Second Phase examiner."

"And I am Buhara, the other Second Phase examiner," the man added with a childish grin as he cheerfully waved at the applicants.

As Menchi explained their next test, grumbles and complaints could be heard from the majority of the applicants and Harry grimaced in distaste at the thought of being judged on his cooking; something that reminded him far too much of the times that Aunt Petunia had stood over him and breathed down his neck as he cooked for the Dursleys. More than one person laughed when the woman declared herself and her partner as Gourmet Hunters but Harry only grew gloomier when the mocking laughter ignited the woman's temper.

The resulting argument between applicants and examiner only ended when the woman declared that they either took her test or they failed and tried again another year. All of the applicants abruptly fell silent in response to that threat. Menchi glared at all of the applicants one last time before she listed the rules for the task. The moment she finished, Buhara named the main ingredient that everyone had to use; pork.

The rest of the applicants dashed off immediately to hunt down a pig in the forest and Harry sighed as he tossed his two eagles into the air and instructed the pair to find him a wild pig. He then threw a scowl over his shoulder at the two examiners (for the bad memories they had stirred with their chosen task) before he trotted after Flip and Flop. Thanks to his two companions, Harry was the first one to come across the wild pigs that lived on the reserve and the moment he got a good look at the group of enormous pigs his eagles had led him to, he went from mildly annoyed over the task to highly irritated and he considered hexing the two Gourmet Hunters in tender places in retaliation.

Huffing in annoyance, Harry studied the group of wild pigs until he caught sight of a smallish one that was limping on a twisted foot. He then ordered Flip and Flop to cut his selected target from the group and drive it towards him as he drew his wand so that he could knock the pig out before he slaughtered it (so the creature wouldn't feel any pain). A number of other applicants stumbled upon Harry and the pigs in time to witness the eagles driving the crippled pig right at Harry; who was simply standing with his right arm forward as the wild and angry pig bore down on him.

The pig was only five meters away when he fired off a silent Stunning Spell that hit the animal right in the face and immediately knocked him unconscious (the red light only visible for a split second in the bright light of day). The pig crashed to the ground and skidded to a stop right at Harry's feet to the shock of those who had been watching him (none of them aware of the invisible wand he'd held clutched in his hand). The wizard then drew the dagger that he'd taken from the applicant that had threatened him on his first night aboard the Kaijinmaru (which he'd cleaned and sharpened) and used it to slit the pig's throat before he conjured up a bit of rope (making it look like he pulled it from his pack) and strung the pig up in the nearest tree in order to drain the blood.

Harry made short work of gutting the pig (a task made easy due to the high number of unpleasant detentions he'd had over four years of schooling spent cutting up various potion ingredients under the supervision of Snape). The innards were handed over to the helpful eagles as he'd have had a harder time finding and bringing down his chosen target without their help. He then cast a Featherweight Charm on the pig and hauled it back to the cooking stations where he skinned and butchered the pig; tossing the hide, the legs, and the less desirable cuts of meat into his trunk when no one was looking (Harry intended to use the extra meat to feed the two eagles if they ended up stuck in a place where they couldn't hunt for fresh fish or game).

The fifteen year old then fired up the barbeque provided for the task before he filled a couple of pots full of water from a hosepipe and set them on the stove to heat the water (so he could boil the ribs before barbequing them). The oven was turned on to three-fifty at that point (to give it time to warm up) and Harry began prepping the pork roasts he planned to make. Once those were tossed into a pan and set in the oven, Harry hunted through the provided supplies for onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, several cans of pineapple chunks, several packs of shish kabob skewers, a bag of pre-made dinner rolls (the latter three all pulled from his trunk), and everything he'd need to make brown gravy, bread the pork chops he was going to make, and season each of the dishes he was making.

By that time, the other applicants began returning with their pigs and Harry was more than a little surprised to see them all start roasting their pigs on the barbeque without even bothering to gut them first. Shaking his head, Harry continued his preparations as he skinned and quartered two of the larger onions, cut the bell peppers into large pieces, opened the cans of pineapple, and washed the potatoes. He then wrapped the potatoes in foil and tucked them into the coals of the barbeque before he began making the shish kabobs; alternately shoving cubed chunks of pork, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pineapple onto the skewers.

Once he finished preparing the shish kabobs, he set them aside to marinate in Worcestershire sauce before he checked on the roasts and boiling ribs. He then mixed the ingredients and spices together for the breading mixture he would use on the pork chops. As soon as the mixture was ready, the chops were promptly breaded on both sides and placed into pans before they joined the roasts in the oven. The burners on the stove were then shut off and the ribs pulled out of the pots, slathered with barbeque sauce, and tossed onto the grill to finish cooking. He took a moment to turn the potatoes over to make certain they cooked evenly before he started cleaning up the messes he'd made while everything cooked.

By this time, several of the other applicants were hauling their roasted pigs up to the examiners and twin cries of pass and fail rang out with each dish presented; Buhara passing everyone and Menchi failing everyone.

Harry watched them for a moment before he focused on the dishes he had cooking; checking the roasts and chops, flipping the ribs over and coating them a second time with barbeque sauce, and preparing the brown gravy. He then placed the shish kabobs onto the barbeque and pulled the potatoes out of the coals. The pork chops were pulled out next while the roasts were basted and turned. Harry then turned back to rotate the shish kabobs and pulled the ribs off the grill. The roasts were brought out just a few minutes later and set off to one side to cool a bit before he turned off the oven, set the rolls on a cookie sheet, and popped the rolls into the oven to warm them. He then turned back to the grill to tend the shish kabobs.

By the time Harry had pulled the last kabob off the grill and the tray of rolls from the oven, all of the other applicants had been failed by Menchi and Harry felt his ire growing as the woman took to staring at him as he arranged the different dishes he'd prepared onto the trays he'd found in one of the cupboards of the cooking station. He sliced the roasts and ribs, stacked the pork chops and kabobs, sliced open the baked potatoes, and poured the steaming gravy into a gravy boat that was placed in the center of a ring made from the potatoes and rolls.

Quick Featherweight Charms and weak Sticking Charms were applied to the three trays once he was finished preparing them. He then balanced the tray of bread and potatoes on his head, grabbed a tray of meat with each hand, and carried the trays up to the table where Menchi and Buhara were waiting for him before he stepped back to wait for his dishes to be judged. Buhara was mostly stuffed but the moment he saw what had been placed in front of him he reached for it only for Menchi to slap his hand away and tell him to wait a moment.

The teal haired woman studied each tray critically before she looked up to study Harry for a long moment. She then picked up one of the shish kabobs and pulled a chunk of grilled pork from the skewer. She chewed the piece of meat carefully before eating a chunk of bell pepper and pineapple together followed by a second bite of pork. Menchi then set the skewer aside before she told Buhara that he could have the rest of the kabobs. The large man gave a cry of joy before he began rapidly stripping each skewer with a single bite and promptly proclaimed the dish delicious after he'd stripped kabob number ten.

Menchi in the mean time had picked up a rib and daintily bit into the tender barbequed slathered meat. She'd not even bothered to take a second bite before she pushed the tray closer to Buhara to let him know he could finish off the ribs alongside of the kabobs as she used her fork to cut a chunk from the smallest pork chop and sampled it next. Harry was starting to grow antsy by this time due to the woman's continued silence and the fingers on his right hand twitched as the urge to hex her grew stronger.

Unexpectedly, a pleased hum was heard from the finicky woman just when Harry's temper was about to get the best of him and Menchi ate the rest of the pork chop before turning the tray so she could sample a slice of the roast pork. She ignored the potatoes and rolls entirely as she ate three slices of the roast pork before she shoved the two final trays of food over to Buhara (who had by that time proclaimed the ribs delicious), daintily wiped her mouth with a napkin, and leaned back in her seat as she pinned Harry with sharp eyes and addressed him for the first time.

"Number ninety-seven, you are an interesting individual; I think I like you. With skills like yours, you could be a great Gourmet Hunter. Out of all the applicants participating in the Second Phase, you are the only one that truly understood the task. However, you still need more training; you're roasts were slightly undercooked, the ribs were drowned out by the barbeque sauce, and the kabobs unimpressive. So, therefore I will give you the honor of becoming my apprentice."

Incised by the woman's audacity in telling him what he was going to do with his life, the way she nitpicked his cooking (in the same way that his aunt had), and still annoyed by the entire task, Harry clenched his teeth and hissed out an irritated, "No."

"What do you mean; no?" Menchi heatedly demanded as she scowled at Harry.

Harry drew himself up to his full height and gave the woman a level four sneer (the one that said; congratulations, your level of intelligence has just been ranked below that of a retarded mountain troll) as he sarcastically replied, "The use of the word 'no' in the English language is an indication of a negative response. Synonyms of the word 'no' include nay, negative, and refusal amongst others. Need I go on?"

The woman spluttered angrily for several seconds before she angrily asked, "Do you have any idea how many four and five star chefs out there would kill to have the opportunity to become my apprentice!?"

"Do I look like I care?" Harry retorted as he folded his arms across his chest.

Harry was forced to dodge a fist two seconds later as Buhara attempted to punch him in response to Menchi's growing anger; the teen back flipping away several times before he settled into a defensive stance as he pulled out both his wand and Gryffindor's sword in response to the threat. His magic thrummed beneath his skin due to how angry he was and his eyes glittered with golden dust motes as he glared at both examiners.

"You didn't need to interfere, Buhara," Menchi huffed a moment later as she crossed her arms over her bosom and glared at Harry in return.

"I was worried that you would kill him for insulting you like that," Buhara replied as he shrugged his shoulders and resumed eating the last of the food that Harry had prepared. "You know that Chairman Netero frowns on killing kids; no matter how annoying they are."

"Tch, whatever," Menchi groused before she addressed Harry in a slightly more civil tone. "What is your problem anyway, brat? Why did you turn down my offer?"

"You weren't offering; you were dictating on top of your snobbish nitpicking," Harry snapped back without relaxing his stance. "And I took offense to your assumption that I would be happy to have you dictate how I would be living my life."

"That's it? You're upset because I didn't ask you nicely? You know what, forget it; you just failed the task like everyone else here. I don't need a high and mighty apprentice with a stick shoved so far up his…"

The rest of the woman's crude insult was abruptly cut off as a goofy old guy dropped out of the airship that had been passing overhead. The man immediately chastised the woman for failing everyone, his tone both disappointed and lecturing as he made the woman openly confess to purposefully making the task harder than necessary because she'd been angry about most of the applicants not taking her seriously at the very start of the task.

Harry relaxed his stance just the slightest bit and lowered the tip of Gryffindor's sword once it became apparent that his life was no longer in immediate danger from either examiner; though his anger had not abated in the least. During the next couple of minutes, Harry took the time to study the newcomer in the event that the man turned out to be a threat.

The man's head was mostly bald head with a long samurai's topknot of white hair. He also had excessively long eyebrows, a bushy white mustache, a strangely styled white beard that looked like the tip had been dipped in gray paint, and huge earlobes that had been pierced twice. He wore what almost looked like a traditional martial arts gi with blue trim, a yellow v on the back, and long sleeves that hung down passed his hands and a pair of wooden geta (a type of Japanese sandal that resembled a cross between a flip-flop and a clog with one long 'tooth' on the bottom that elevated the wearer and helped keep their feet out of the mud).

As if he had felt Harry's eyes on him, the man turned to meet the wizard's gaze and the teen froze as the man's piercing brown eyes seemed to weigh and measure his soul in that single glance. Harry automatically brought Gryffindor's sword back up into the ready position in response to the power Harry could sense clinging to the man. The wide smile the man gave him just seconds later only served to add to his growing tension as he couldn't help but worry about what that smile might mean for him in the long run. Harry didn't relax his stance again until the man looked away.

Not long after that, the group was informed that the Second Phase of the test was going to be redone and that everyone would have a second chance at passing Menchi's test. This time, they were supposed to boil eggs.

The airship the man had dropped from landed off to one side of the mansion at that point so that all of the applicants could board the craft and Harry put away his wand and sword as he hurried over to his cooking station to pack up the left over food and anything of his that he'd taken out while the other applicants rushed to board the airship. He then shouldered his pack, whistled for Flip and Flop, and made his way over to the airship as his anger dissipated just enough to allow him to regain control of his magic before he boarded the aircraft.

The trip took the rest of the morning and half of the afternoon before they landed and disembarked on the summit of Mount Mafutatsu. The moment that Harry saw what the new task entailed, he felt excitement bubble up inside of him as he stared down into the canyon and watched Menchi fly without aide of a broom. Apparently, Harry wasn't the only one excited by the task as Gon leapt feet first into the canyon alongside of Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio before the woman even finished explaining the dangers involved. Just over a third of the remaining applicants followed the four of them a minute later and Harry leaned over the side of the cliff to see if they would be successful in claiming an egg.

As Harry watched, Gon took charge as he told the others to wait as they all held onto the large webs strung between the two walls of the canyon. A few of those that thought they knew better than the kid would have dropped to their deaths if not for Flip and Flop snatching them out of the air as quickly as they fell while Harry cast Featherweight Charms on the idiots to reduce their weight. He also ended up using the Safety-Line Spell to catch a couple of people when both eagles were busy helping others; hauling the applicants up as quickly as he could in order to not be caught with his hands full if someone else needed help.

Meanwhile, those that did listen to the twelve year old were hanging on tightly to the web as they dangled over the deep canyon; their weight causing the thick strands to dangerously stretch. Just when it seemed like the webs would break under the combined weight of the fifty-seven applicants still holding onto the web, Gon gave the signal as he let go and grabbed an egg on the way down before the uplift caught him and threw him back up into the air. Harry knew that far more people than expected successfully retrieved an egg because of the kid.

Once everyone else was safely back up on the top of Mount Mafutatsu (Flip and Flop snagging those that had been too far away to reach the cliff the instant the wind died), Harry took off his pack, hammered his practice sword into the ground with a rock, secured the end of a rope to the sword, and used the rope to rappel down the cliff-side; leaving his eagles to guard his sword and rope to prevent anyone from knocking it loose or using it themselves. Once he reached the lower web, Harry let go of the rope and confidently trotted out onto the web towards the nearest bundle of dangling eggs (which wasn't much different that running along the rigging lines of he Kaijinmaru).

When he was standing right beside the strand connecting the egg bundle to the web, Harry hooked his left foot beneath the main web line and swung forward and down as he quickly hooked his right foot over the line as well so that he ended up hanging upside down on the thread by his feet. Harry then very carefully shimmied down the thick strand holding the egg bundles in place; moving slowly so as not to break the strand or knock any of the eggs loose. He was forced to hold tight as the wind rushed up from below, threatening to rip him away from his precarious position, but he managed to hang on thanks in part to the bundle of eggs blocking the worst of the wind.

It only took him a few more minutes to reach the highest eggs at that point and Harry brought out his wand and cast a weak sticking charm to his pant legs as he wrapped his legs tightly around the strand. He then tucked the wand away and let go of the webbing with both hands so that he could pluck an egg from the bundle and tuck it into the left pocket of his dueling cloak. A second egg was secretly tucked into his mokeskin pouch after Harry cast a Notice-Me-Not Charm on it so that no one would realize he'd taken an extra one and shoved it into a tiny pouch less than half the size of the egg. He then canceled the sticking charm so he could back up enough to turn around and make his way back up to the horizontal web.

The procedure was repeated twice more at two different bundles; netting Harry a total of six eggs (three hidden ones and three obvious ones) before he quickly made his way back to where he'd dropped down the cliff-side and allowed the next updraft to carry him back up to the top. His rope and sword were then retrieved and put away and his pack returned to his back before he sauntered over to where the eggs were being cooked so that he could have three of them boiled.

"I'm curious; why did you feel the need to take three eggs when everyone else was satisfied with just taking one," the old man inquired as he walked up to stand next to Harry as the wizard's eggs were placed in a separate pot (to keep them from getting mixed up with those that were almost finished cooking).

"Flip and Flop earned themselves a reward for risking their lives to save those that were too arrogant to follow the lead of a twelve year old boy," Harry replied as the two eagles dropped down out of the sky to land on the teen in response to hearing their names and the word reward. "They also know they earned a special treat and if I failed to acknowledge their efforts than they will grow to resent me for taking them for granted."

"Ah, a far more noble reason than what I had originally suspected; carry on then young man."

Harry absently nodded in reply as he gave most of his attention to his feathered companions; softly letting them know their treat would be ready soon. By the time his three eggs were being fished out of the boiling water, the sun was sinking below the horizon and painting the sky red and orange and the two birds were impatiently waiting for their promised treat. Eggs in hand, Harry retreated away from the other applicants and shooed the birds from his shoulders before he sat down and dug out his dagger to crack and peel the shell from the first egg before slicing it into eighths that he fed to Flip and Flop.

The second egg would follow in short order and Harry would only get to eat half of the third one due to the two birds begging for more (which he'd been unable to deny them). Shortly after he finished his last bite of egg, those applicants that had passed the revised Second Phase (of which there were fifty-eight including himself) were shuffled back onto the airship while those that had failed would be waiting on the top of Mount Mafutatsu for a second airship to pick them up and take them back to Zaban City. Harry would be the last applicant to board the craft as he'd been the furthest away when the boarding call had been made.

"Ah, number ninety-seven, just in time," the goofy old man declared the moment the three of them stepped inside of the airship. "I just need a little more information from you for our records before you join the other applicants; starting with a confirmation of your full name."

"James Evans."

"Birth date?"

"June twentieth," Harry replied; using the date his alias had been created as that was technically the day James Evans was born according to the goblin paperwork.

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

"Gender?"

Harry blinked in mild surprise over the question, since he knew he was no where near as effeminate looking as Draco Malfoy or Draco's father, before he snorted and drawled out, "Male," in a tone that said the man was dense for needing to ask in the first place; drawing a brief smile from the old man.

"Can you please tell me the names of your parents and their current address?"

"Why do you need to know about my parents?" Harry asked as he unconsciously dropped his right hand to the hilt of his practice sword and frowned in response to the question; his eyes taking in the fact that Satotz, Menchi, and the green guy that had handed out the badges were blocking three of the four doors that led out of the small antechamber he was in; the fourth door behind Harry leading outside of the craft (which had automatically locked itself the moment the ship had taken off).

"You are currently underage; so we need to have the name and address of an emergency contact in the event that you are seriously injured during the remaining phases of the Exam now that you've passed the first two phases."

"My age is irrelevant; I was emancipated at age fourteen."

"Even so, we will need the name of a parent, relative, or other former guardian who can be contacted in case of an emergency."

"I'm an orphan and I've been living on my own since I turned fourteen," Harry replied in a tone that said that was all he was going to say on the matter and thankfully the man took the hint and moved onto the next question.

"Moving on, then; what is your current height?"

"I was one-hundred-fifty-seven and a-half centimeters the last time I measured myself but I think I've grown another centimeter or two since then."

"And your current weight?"

"Just over seven stone."

"Known health issues?"

"None," Harry replied even as he added a silent, _unless you were to count the huge target I've been wearing on my back since __**before**__ I was born._

"Date of your last physical?"

"Er… I can't recall; I've not been to see a doctor since before my ninth birthday though. Aside from the occasional trip I've taken to see the school nurse for injuries during the school year."

The man hummed and nodded before he continued, "Just one more question and we're done here; do you have any identifying marks such as tattoos, scars, or birthmarks? If the answer is yes, I'll need a brief description and location of each one."

"Why do you need to know that?" Harry asked as he went completely still in response to that particular question.

"For identification purposes in the event that you are killed and your face is unrecognizable," the old man replied as he briefly glanced up from the form he'd been filling out.

"I have three scars," Harry grudgingly supplied after eying the man a minute longer as he tried not think about the scar that had once marred his brow or the fact that all three of his scars had been earned during his fourth year at Hogwarts; two of them creature induced while the last one was where Pettigrew had cut his arm to take his blood. "I have a two inch line running across the crook of my right elbow, a pair of two inch wide and three inch long teardrops on either side of my right knee, and a five inch by seven inch mess of shallow scars on the back of my left shoulder."

"I see. Thank you for your patience, young man. Just follow Beans; he'll lead you to where the others are waiting."

* * *

"Satotz? What was your analysis?" Isaac Netero, Chairman of the two hundred eighty-seventh Hunter Exam demanded softly as he watched Beans lead applicant number ninety-seven towards the lounge where all of the other applicants were waiting.

"He is a riddle. I did not see him once during the course of the First Phase and yet, he was the first one to arrive at the site of the Second Phase looking as if he'd been out on a leisurely stroll instead of participating in a grueling one hundred and fifty mile marathon; half of which was over the treacherous terrain of Swindler's Swamp. Although, he did have at least one of his trained eagles pacing me throughout the entire task."

"Menchi?"

"He is a decent cook. I watched him almost the entire time; he was the first one to return with his catch and he had no trouble keeping track of multiple dishes. He also never sampled a single bite of the food he made while he was cooking and I half expected the food he presented to be horribly bland or far too over spiced. And while there was plenty of room for improvement, they were all well made. So, he's highly organized, can multitask, and he is obviously intelligent. The stubborn brat's pride is also easily bruised and he has a short temper."

"Yes, I noticed the glare he'd been giving you when I first arrived as well as the fact that he'd been set to defend himself from you and Buhara. He also didn't hesitate to save the lives of at least sixteen applicants during the second attempt at the Second Phase. Mizuken? How truthful was the lad?"

"The kid never once told an outright lie even if he wasn't exactly being perfectly honest either," a voice replied as a man with an angular face, dark brown eyes, sparse mustache and goatee, and shaggy brown hair he stepped out from behind the hidden panel in the wall beside the entrance. "He's a right powerful little runt and he's been partially trained to use his Nen; though whether he had someone teach him or he learned it on his own is hard to say. He's also had some rather impressive physical training based upon the rather reckless one-man show he pulled off when collecting his eggs from the canyon."

"Do we know anything else about him?"

"The ship captain that brought applicants four-oh-four through four-oh-six and applicant ninety-seven to the island had nothing but good things to say about all four individuals; though he had surprisingly little to say about ninety-seven despite the fact that he had been one of the first applicants he'd picked up," Satotz added after a moment. "He was also one of the few individuals that made it to the initial starting point without the aide of a navigator and without running into any of the preliminary testers that are stationed at each of the various routes leading from Dolle Harbor; so there really isn't much we do know about the young man."

"The kid is fairly paranoid though he tries to hide it and he was quick to turn defensive when you asked him about his parents; he kept one hand on his sword throughout the rest of the interview after that," Mizuken offered as he leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "If numbers four-oh-five and ninety-seven pass the exam, I want to be the one to test and train at least one of them but would prefer to take them both; they are very interesting individuals."

"I'll keep that in mind when I assign tutors to each of the new Hunters for the hidden exam," Netero replied as he glanced down at the Hunter's Application in his hands. "I'd like the three of you to keep an eye on that particular young man for the rest of the Exam; I have a feeling that he is really something special, if he is related to who I think he is. Don't forget to keep an eye on four-oh-six as well; Ging's son has so far proven to be just as interesting as young Mr. Evans."

"Ging's son is truly something else; he showed no fear as he jumped into the canyon. He's got the makings of a true leader, he just needs to get a bit more experience," Menchi stated with a small laugh.

* * *

**Translations:** Japanese to English

Mount Mafutatsu – Mount Split-in-Half

* * *

**AN: **_For those of you who are also reading my other HP/HxH crossover, you will see similarities between this chapter and the equivalent chapter in Hunter x in the x Making (which was chapter five or six, if I recall correctly). The reason for that is because both stories were actually birthed from the same plot bunny before they mutated into two separate stories. The original story that formed both stories has been laid to rest but bits and pieces of it will be found in both stories even though the plot lines of both Fics are now far different. ~ Jenn_


	10. Passing x Time x Again

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

Chapter Ten: Passing x Time x Again

"Here we are, young man; you'll find the rest of your fellow applicants through these door," Beans announced as they stopped in front of a set of doors. "Chairman Netero will be arriving shortly to debrief all of the applicants."

"Thank you," Harry murmured as he shifted Flip into one arm so that he could open the right hand door to enter the room and immediately felt every eye in the room fall on him as the sound of the door drew the attention of the other applicants.

Long used to being stared at, Harry simply ignored the eyes on him as he strode confidently into the room; walking with the rolling gait of a sailor that made the bottom edges of his dueling cloak sway and flair dramatically with each step that he took. As he moved through the room, Harry let his eyes sweep across the faces of the other applicants until he found the individual that he was looking for. Letting a cocky grin form on his face, Harry altered his course to make his way over to where Kurapika was standing with the other two passengers from the Kaijinmaru and Killua.

"Oy, Kurapika, fancy a spar later if there's enough time before we face the next task? I'm bored as hell and feeling antsy after missing more than two weeks worth of proper training. Unless, of course, you're too tired?"

"Bored…?" Leorio spluttered in disbelief as he gaped at Harry.

"Well, yeah; all we've done so far is run and cook – two things I did more than enough when I was growing up. If I had wanted the reminder of my childhood, I would have visited the zoo and gone to see the poo flinging monkey exhibits."

"I am a bit tired but I wouldn't be opposed to having a light spar if there is enough time," Kurapika replied around a laugh in response to Harry's dry wit.

"You're Katzo's friend from the ship, aren't you?" Gon inquired on the heels of Kurapika's reply.

"Aye."

"What's your name?"

"You arrived on the same boat with Gon and never introduced yourself," Killua demanded incredulously. "After all the grief you gave me about being rude, it turns out your even ruder than me."

"I was a little preoccupied with helping the crew to keep the ship afloat as we were sucked up into a tropical storm that turned into a hurricane; manners were an afterthought at the time. And I would be nice to me, little stray; or I'll not feed you again the next time you come slinking up to my fire begging like a starved pup."

"You're still annoying and mean," Killua deadpanned with a look on his face that was a cross between petulant and pouting.

Harry just snorted before he returned his attention back to Gon as he offered, "My name is James, Gon; I would have introduced myself before we reached Dolle Harbor but as I said, I was a little preoccupied."

"It's nice to meet you, James; but how did you know my name? And are you the one who trained your eagles? Did you raise them from the egg?"

"The captain mentioned your name as I took my leave of the Kaijinmaru and I heard Killua address you by your name just before the Second Phase began. To answer your other questions; no, I didn't raise Flip and Flop – I purchased them from a large scale breeder in London back in June. They had already been trained when I bought them but I have since taught them a few new tricks."

"You mean you corrupted them and taught them how to prank people that annoy you," Kurapika corrected with a snort.

"You only say that because you're still sore about that live squid that Flop dropped onto your head after you insultingly called him a birdbrain," Harry fired back as the eagle in question let out a smug honk while the two twelve year olds burst out laughing.

Before Kurapika could respond, the man that had been questioning Harry entered the room alongside of Beans and everyone was asked to gather close. Harry frowned when the man introduced himself as the chairman for the current exam and he found himself worrying a bit as he wondered why the chairman had felt the need to personally question him the moment he boarded the airship when any old examiner could have done so; the wizard doubting that the man had interviewed all fifty-eight of the remaining applicants – otherwise it would have taken far longer for them to take off.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself to the remaining fifty-eight applicants. I am Isaac Netero; the Chairman for the two hundred eighty-seventh Hunter Exam Selection Committee. I had originally planned to make an appearance during the final Phase of the test but I find the rising tension in the air exhilarating and so I have decided to stick around a little longer in the hopes that all of you will entertain me."

"We are due to arrived at the site of the next phase tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in the morning," Beans stated while Chairman Netero laughed heartily over his declaration. "For those of you who are hungry, there is a buffet style supper set up in the Dining Hall. There are also a series of small dorms available if you wish to get some rest. In other words, all of you are free to do as you wish until we arrive at our destination."

Harry found himself grinning in response to that declaration as he turned back to meet Kurapika's gaze; the blonde giving him an answering grin as he nodded. Gon and Killua broke away from the group as they headed for the door; the two twelve year olds eagerly discussing what part of the airship they should explore first. Harry shook his head as the two boys briefly reminded Harry of Fred and George plotting their next prank. He soon put both sets of troublemakers out of his mind as Kurapika spoke up just before they reached the doors leading out.

"There is one thing that bothers me," Kurapika muttered as a frown crossed his face.

"And what is that?" Leorio asked in return.

"Exactly how many more phases are there to this exam?"

"Oh. None of the examiners so far have mentioned an exact number, have they?"

"They probably base the total number of tasks upon how many people pass each phase," Harry suggested logically.

"The number of tasks varies from year to year but on average there are usually five or six phases," the fat bully Harry had followed a couple of days earlier answered as he walked up behind the trio.

"That would mean that we still have at least three more to go…" Leorio mused as the taller man stopped and turned around to face the fat man while Harry and Kurapika merely stopped and glanced back over their shoulders.

"I guess that means our spar will be both short and light; to leave us some time to rest afterwards," Kurapika stated as he turned to Harry.

"That's probably best anyway since it's been a couple of weeks since I last sparred with anyone," Harry agreed as the three of them turned away from the bully and began heading out the door once more.

"I wouldn't let my guard down if I were you," Tonpa quickly pointed out before they could leave the room. "There are still ten hours between now and when we arrive and…"

"And you should learn some proper manners," Harry huffed in annoyance as the man was seriously cutting into his sparring time. "Don't you know it's rude to try and shove unsolicited advice down a perfect stranger's throat? I swear; you're worse than the little stray that came to beg scraps from my fire last night." Kurapika and Leorio both snickered in response to Harry's cutting remarks while the bully's face had begun darkening in growing anger with each word Harry said. Harry smirked as he made shooing motions with his hands and added, "Go away little pest; I'm sure there's a rubbish bin around here somewhere that you can buzz about where you won't annoy us or pollute the air with your very presence."

"I'm going to make you pay for that," Tonpa growled as he clenched his fists and bared his teeth.

"I'm already paying for it since your presence is still fouling up the air I breathe."

"I'm going to kill you!"

Harry stared at the man for a heartbeat before he burst out laughing; Harry had long since grown numb to death threats due to how many people had threatened to kill him throughout his life (roughly half of them had been leveled at him over the past six months while he was aboard the Kaijinmaru). The teen didn't stop laughing as he turned away from the man and began to walk away as best as he could while laughing himself silly.

"I'm going to choke the life out of you with my bare hands and then I'm going to pluck and roast the two ugly chickens that you keep as pets!"

All amusement left Harry as he stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around as his anger and magic immediately reacted in response to the threats and insults directed at his feathered companions; the threat reminding him of Hedwig's loss. Harry's eyes glittered with magic and fury as he rolled forward onto the balls of his feet and hissed out, "While it was more than a little amusing that you tried to intimidate me with your rather pathetic death threats on my life, your spoken threat against my feathered companions just pissed me the hell off. Congratulations; you just earned the number four spot on my shit list."

Harry then took a single step towards the slightly taller man as a thread of magic swirled around him and shifted his cloak and hair before ruffling the feathers of both eagles as the birds silently glared at the fat man with glittering dark eyes that promised a world of pain. More than a few of he lights in the room began flickering in response to the magic that was now saturating the air around the teen. The furious wizard then leaned slightly forward to glare at the man over the top of his darkened glasses before he continued speaking.

"If you want to live to see another day, I suggest you stay as far away from me and mine as you can get because I guarantee that you will die a slow and painful death should you even _think_ of attempting to carry out your threat to harm my eagles. If I see you within fifty feet of my companions and you so much as look at them wrong, then there won't be enough of you left to bury by the time I am finished with you."

Harry then deliberately turned his back on the other man and stalked out of the room without looking back. Kurapika and Leorio caught up to him a few minutes later and Harry nearly snapped at them to leave him alone only to recall at the last second that they were not the ones that had pissed him off. By the time they'd reached the end of the corridor, most of Harry's anger had been brought back under control along with his magic as the wizard turned introspective as he tried to figure out why he'd snapped like he had.

He soon came to the conclusion that it was result of a number of different factors; the fact that he missed Katzo, Jacob, and Gunter, the boredom he'd been feeling off and on since he'd arrived at the starting point of the First Phase, the complete disruption of his physical training schedule, the tension he could sense from the other applicants, and the wealth of negative memories that had been stirred by the Second Phase. Knowing that, it was fairly easy for Harry to let go of the last of his anger.

The wizard then sighed as the last of the tension fled from his body as he took note of his surroundings for the first time since he'd stormed away from the bully. The teen abruptly stopped and frowned as he glanced back the way they'd come before casting another look towards the direction they'd been moving in. Kurapika and Leorio slowed to a stop of a few steps later as they belatedly realized that Harry was no longer moving; both of them more than a little confused.

"Is there something wrong, James?" Kurapika asked after a few minutes had passed.

"Yeah, do either of you know where we're going?"

"No; I thought you were leading the way," Leorio replied as he swung his briefcase over his shoulder and slouched down further.

"Er… no, I was only trying to get away from the walking, talking jackass before I did something I would regret."

"Tonpa is rather annoying," Kurapika agreed succinctly. "As far as to where we're going, we can either find a member of the airship's crew and find out if there is a room on board with enough room for us to have our spar or we can just start opening doors until we find a suitable room on our own. Unless, of course, you're no longer in the mood…?"

"Hmm… no, I need to burn off a bit of excess energy or I'm liable to start snapping at everyone over nothing."

After another couple minutes of debate, the three of them began searching the rooms that opened up off of the hallway they were in for a room that would be suitable for sparring while keeping an eye out for a member of the crew that they could approach. Kurapika found a large, empty room with padded walls and wooden floor thirty minutes later and Harry bounded inside and promptly declared it perfect before he shooed Flip and Flop from their perches and began warming up without bothering to take off his pack-trunk.

"Shouldn't you take your pack off before you start?" Leorio inquired as he made himself comfortable beside the door to watch.

"Nope; I need to learn how to fight with it on," Harry countered with a shake of his head. "Not only does it offer me extra protection from blows to the back, there won't always be time for me to remove it if I have to fight. Plus, taking it off during a real fight increases the chances that my pack and therefore all of my supplies could be lost or stolen. The only reason I never sparred with it on while aboard the ship was because of the chances that I would get it tangled in the rigging once Jacob and Gunter had me fighting on the ratlines and spars."

"Won't you run the risk of your pack getting damaged then? Or the straps cut?"

"No, the straps have stripes of reinforced steel inside of them to make the harder to cut and the frame is made from fire hardened walnut and is very difficult to scratch or cut," Harry explained less than truthfully; completely leaving out the fact that the pack was layered with protective spells that prevented it from being damaged by blades, weather, and spells.

"Rules?" Kurapika inquired as he pulled out his chained bokken and settled into his favorite offensive stance.

"The usual but with a one hour time limit," Harry responded after a moment; referring to the rules they'd established back when they first began sparring together (which basically meant it they could use anything bar lethal and crippling attacks).

"One hour or until one of us can't continue; which ever comes first," Kurapika agreed with a grin. "Will you start us and keep track of the time for us, Leorio?"

"Sure; on the count of three – one, two, go!"

Nothing else was said as Kurapika attacked Harry the moment Leorio gave the signal and Harry focused all of his attention on the blonde in order to avoid getting hit by the other teen's swords; dodging, blocking, or counter attacking with each step he took. The padded walls were put to good use as Harry used them as spring boards to increase his speed and height when he started using the walls to his advantage.

Kurapika had picked up a lot of tricks from sparring with Harry over the last couple of months though and the blonde easily kept up with the shorter teen; though his moves were slightly sluggish due to his exhaustion. Something that put the two teens on even footing since they were both struggling physically for different reasons; Harry compensating for the extra stone and a half of weight on his back in addition to the cloak and boots he was wearing.

Harry enjoyed every single minute of the fast paced fight despite the fact that he would end up losing the spar when Leorio called time sixty minutes later. His only regret was that it was such a short spar; the time limit only set out of difference for the exhaustion that Harry knew Kurapika was feeling from the first two phases of the Exam. He was actually more than a little surprised that the blonde had consented to the spar due to that same exhaustion. Harry didn't really have time to analyze the blonde's reasons though as he was unexpectedly caught off guard by the sound of clapping in the wake of Leorio ending the match at the one hour mark.

Turning towards the door, the wizard found Killua, Gon, and Chairman Netero standing beside Leorio; the three of them had entered at some point after the match had started without Harry's knowledge. Harry blinked at the still clapping Gon before he shook his head and bowed towards the twelve year old with a dramatic flourish. The moment was ruined when Kurapika shoved him over onto his face for being a complete ham; which set everyone else to laughing. Harry retaliated by sweeping Kurapika's feet out from under him as he walked passed Harry.

"I hope we aren't interrupting, gentlemen," Chairman Netero stated several minutes later when the laughter faded away.

"No; we're finished now, sir," Kurapika replied as he climbed back onto his feet and helped Harry up. "We were only having a short friendly spar to get in some training before we got some rest."

"Well you certainly looked like you enjoyed yourselves."

"The past hour has been the most fun I've had since I set foot in Dolle Harbor," Harry truthfully replied as he collected his sleeping companions. "Though, retrieving the eggs earlier might be a distant second."

"Oh? Perhaps I can interest you and your friends in joining the three of us in a friendly game," Chairman Netero offered as he gestured to Gon and Killua.

"Count me out; I'm dead on my feet," Leorio replied as he pushed himself off the ground. "It was exhausting enough just watching those two bounce about the room over the past hour."

"I could really use a nap myself," Kurapika stated next.

"As fun as that sounds, I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass as I need to attend to my feathered friends; they are utterly exhausted and they will sleep better if I set them up with a proper perch," Harry answered as he gestured to the two eagles that hadn't even twitched a feather when he'd picked them up and shifted them onto his shoulder and arm.

"I see; have a good evening then, gentlemen."

Harry followed the other two out of the room and waved a silent farewell over his shoulder as Kurapika led their small group back in the direction of the dorm rooms that they had spotted earlier. It only took them a few minutes to find an unoccupied room and Harry set the eagles and his pack aside before he set up his tent and shifted the birds inside to their perches. Harry then bid Kurapika and Leorio goodnight as he pulled his pack into the tent with him; the fifteen year old not wishing to disturb them with his reading since it was obvious that they were both exhausted.

Harry then ate a couple of the pork chops he'd made earlier, spent an hour browsing through the Dueler's Grimoire, and spent another two hours doing calisthenics (to make up for missing out on most of his morning training) before he set his alarm and dropped into bed. The buzzing and beeping of his alarm dragged Harry from bed at six the next morning and he was half tempted to reset it for seven thirty. Only the knowledge that doing so would potentially mean he'd mess up his training schedule even further pulled him from beneath his covers.

A quick cold shower and a chunk of Stone's Teeth had him wide awake five minutes later and he flew through his morning routine with practiced ease. The only thing he couldn't do was run his usual laps since there just wasn't room enough inside of his tent. After he finished exercising, Harry took another five minute shower to wash off the sweat before he got dressed for the day.

He then woke up the matching menaces, offered them a couple of Hawker's Treats each, and left the tent so that he could pack it up. Kurapika and Leorio were both already up and moving when Harry crawled out of his tent and he greeted them cheerfully as he dropped the tent, rolled it up, and strapped it to his pack. Kurapika tossed him a pair of oranges when he finished (the blonde had gotten up early enough to seek out the dining hall for food) and Harry thanked him as he peeled and ate both pieces of fruit. By that time it was seven-forty-five; meaning that there was only fifteen minutes remaining until they reached the location of the Third Phase.

Just five minute later, an announcement sounded through the airship informing all of the applicants that they were approaching their destination and would be landing in ten minutes. Gathering up their things, the trio left the dorm and wandered in the direction of the exit so that they could be some of the first ones off the craft. They were joined half way there by Killua and Harry teasingly chided Kurapika for feeding the stray when the blonde tossed the twelve year old an extra orange.

Killua scowled at Harry in response but then stuck his nose up in the air when Harry merely smirked back at him. Gon wouldn't rejoin their small group until after they disembarked; the twelve year old had woken up just minutes before they'd landed. The five of them gathered off to one side of the rest of the applicants and took a moment study the top of the pillar like plateau that they'd been brought to before they returned their attention to Beans as the little green man made his presence known.

"Welcome to the top of Trick Tower and the starting point for Phase Three," Beans stated once he had the attention of the fifty-six applicants that had left the aircraft (two of those to pass the Second Phase had apparently dropped out over the course of their flight). "In order to pass this part of the Exam, you must reach the base of the tower alive within the seventy-two hour time limit. If there are no questions, we will begin the Third Phase now." Several of the applicants began muttering under their breath but when no one actually spoke out with any questions, Beans smiled at them as he gave his parting words, "I wish you all luck and will pray for your health."

Harry frowned slightly as he watched Beans return to the airship; the latest task sounding far too simple. The huge blimp then lifted off the tower's top a minute later and Harry glanced around to find all of the other applicants glancing nervously at each other and the edges of the tower. Gon and Killua both hurried to the closest edge and peered over the side with Harry, Kurapika, and Leorio following after them after a brief hesitation.

Harry let out a whistle of appreciation the moment he got his first glimpse over the side and spent another minute trying to judge the distance from the top of the tower to the base. They were still staring over the side of the tower when the applicant wearing badge number eighty-six lowered himself down over the side and began climbing down using nothing but his hands. Two minutes later, four reddish pink beasts that had human looking faces with huge mouths filled with sharp teeth appeared seemingly from no where.

The largest of the strange beasts plucked the man off the wall just five minutes later and carried him off. All five of them swallowed thickly as they followed the creatures' path off into the distance while the man's cries rapidly grew fainter.

"I guess that means we won't be climbing down the side of the tower," Kurapika murmured as he straightened up and studied the top of the tower.

Leorio, Gon, and Killua were quick to follow the blonde's example while Harry continued to study the long drop. The other four eventually decided to split off into pairs to search the surface of the tower for hidden doors and Harry waved them on their way; letting them know that he had a few ideas of his own as he sent Flip and Flop to scan the side of the tower for other potential threats. After forty-five minutes, the two eagles returned and let Harry know that they found nothing by shaking their heads and ruffling their feathers.

Harry then turned back towards the plateau and made certain no one was looking in his direction before he pulled out his wand and cast the Notice-Me-Not Charm over himself before he pulled out his Firebolt and dove over the side. The wizard allowed gravity to take hold of him for several long minutes before he rolled onto his broom and accelerated to maximum speed as he shot straight for the ground; his two eagles racing along beside him before the broom pulled ahead of them.

He reveled in the rush of the wind screaming past his face as he laid low over the broom; a fierce grin painted across his face as he kept his eyes locked on the rapidly approaching ground. There was a rather close call once he reached the halfway point when the four flying beasts returned but they thankfully had been unable to see him through the charm and so Harry escaped getting eaten by the skin of his teeth. Just a few minutes after that, he pulled up at the very last second to skim along less than ten inches above the ground for several feet before he sat up and pulled to a stop.

Harry let out a happy sigh as he hopped off his broom and returned it to his mokeskin pouch before he began searching along the base of the tower for some sign of where he was supposed to go now that he was at the base with Flip and Flop following him from the sky. He soon found a tall bald man wearing a green uniform of some kind and Harry waited until the man turned away from where Harry was standing before he dropped the charm hiding him and addressed the man.

"Excuse me; do you know where we're supposed to go once we reach the bottom of the tower?"

Harry had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud as the man jumped several feet into the air and let out an undignified yelp as Harry's rather abrupt arrival startled the man. It took the guy several minutes to regain his composure before he led Harry around to the west side of the tower where a partially hidden door was located. The man then stepped off to one side and made a call on his cell phone; his voice rising and falling as he spoke to someone on the other end of the line.

Five minutes later, the sound of stone grinding on stone was heard as the door to which he'd been led shifted upwards to reveal a darkened interior inside. Harry whistled to catch Flip and Flop's attention and quickly told them to spend the next three days resting and hunting before he stepped through the door; the wizard did not wish to keep the two birds cooped up the entire time.

The moment Harry stepped inside, the door slid shut behind him as an intercom crackled to life and a disembodied voice addressed him, "Congratulations number ninety-seven; you are the first applicant to pass the Third Phase. You have also set an all new record for the shortest time completing the Trick Tower Challenge at one hour, five minutes, and twelve seconds. Please make yourself comfortable as you will need to remain in the tower's base room until the remaining seventy hours and fifty-four minutes have run out."

"Joy, another boring task," Harry groused as he glanced around the stone walls and floor of the room he'd ended up in.

After inspecting the room, he claimed the spot right beside the door and set up his tent; if he was going to be stuck in one place for three days, he might as well make the most of it and get some studying done. He used an Engorgement Charm on some stone chips he found laying about the room (hiding his casting with his pack since it didn't take a genius to know that the room probably had hidden cameras all over the place) and used them to hold up the anchor ropes. Once the tent was up, he roped off a two foot section all the way around the tent using conjured rope and posts transfigured from the rest of the rock chips.

Harry then jokingly hung a 'no trespassing sign' from the rope and set out a 'beware of rabid butterflies' sign next to the tent opening. He'd later conjure a flock of acid green, neon yellow, fluorescent pink, and electric blue butterflies that he let lose to flutter about outside of the tent; a light corral ward placed on his rope fence preventing them from wandering off. The fifteen year old then retreated inside of the tent and spent his time exercising, running through his sword stances, working his way through his O.W.L. material, and practicing the various spells he'd memorized out of the Dueler's Grimoire.

Every three to four hours he'd poke his head out of the tent to see if any of the other applicants had made it down to the base of the tower before he'd withdraw inside. Five hours and twelve minutes after Harry's arrival, number forty-four arrived; the redheaded jester that had attacked Satotz and killed the imposter midway through the First Phase. Harry merely took note of the man's presence before he returned to his tent; Harry was not interested in getting to know the intimidating man.

Each time he stuck his head out after that, there would be another applicant in the room but to Harry's disappointment he did not see one of the four applicants he now knew by name. He was not disappointed that there was as of yet no sign of the bully who'd threatened his eagles; Harry would be far happier if the man failed the Third Phase as it would mean that there would be far less of a chance of him ever seeing the man again.

In that way, the fifteen year old wizard passed the three days of the Third Phase.

When there was less than a half an hour remaining, Harry collected his 'rabid' butterflies in a jar, packed up his camp, and put away his tent. He then kicked back with a five foot length of rope and practiced tying the various different knots that Gunter had taught him. By that time, twenty-five applicants had passed the task with one of them dying shortly after he had entered the room. Harry had attempted to save the man but he'd already been too far gone by the time the teen had reached his side. The man's death had bothered Harry as it had brought back memories of Cedric's murder.

Kurapika, Leorio, Gon, and Killua wouldn't show up until just seconds before the remaining time for the Third Phase ran out. Unfortunately, accompanying them was the same bully that had irritated Harry the night before. How the other four had ended up in the man's company was unknown but Harry was certain that they'd not been happy about it given the state of the man's face; someone had obviously punched him more than once. Leorio looked like he'd been on the receiving end of a couple of punches as well and Harry suspected that the two of them had been the ones fighting. The other three looked unharmed, if rather worn out and exhausted.

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**AN: **_Very few similarities to my other Hunter x Hunter/HP crossover in this chapter but there are a couple. Next chapter will have the Fourth Phase and more interactions between Harry & the others. _


	11. Hunter x vs x Hunted

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Hunter x Hunter universe/worlds/characters are the property of Yoshihiro Togashi and Shueisha Inc. (publisher). This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else. _

**AN:** _This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

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Chapter Eleven: Hunter x vs. x Hunted

The moment the time ran out for the task, a buzzer went off and the voice from earlier announced that the Third Phase was officially over and that twenty-nine applicants had passed (the man counting the applicant that had died after reaching the base of the tower despite the fact that he was dead). Stone grated on stone one last time as the door leading outside of the tower opened for the second time in three days and Harry was the first one to step outside; he had been hovering right beside the door. The teen took a split second to revel in the feel of the wind on his face once more before he stepped away from the door to avoid getting trampled.

The other applicants soon followed Harry out and the wizard had to laugh when he saw two blurs rush passed him as Gon and Killua dashed about and played beneath the sun. Many of the adults were enjoying being out in the open once more as well; a number of them stretching out cramped muscles or just enjoying the fresh air. Once everyone had existed the room, Harry migrated over to where Kurapika and Leorio were standing off to one side of the tower to find out what had happened to them and why they'd been traveling with the bully.

"Cutting it pretty close there, weren't you, Kurapika?" Harry inquired with a bit of a laugh once he reached their side. "I had expected the lot of you to show up sometime on the first day. I also never expected to see you in the company of the talking jackass."

"Tch; we were penalized fifty hours near the start of the task and only made it to the tower's base in time thanks to Gon's quick thinking," Kurapika replied as he scowled at Leorio briefly. "If you'd have been with us when we first found the set of doors we used, then we wouldn't have had to work with Tonpa during the task. Our test required us to vote over each decision we made with the majority ruling."

"I already apologized for that and it never would have happened if Tonpa hadn't forfeited his fight," Leorio petulantly muttered as he crossed his arms and glanced away from the two teens.

"Sounds like you guys at least had some fun," Harry concluded with a small grin. "I was stuck in that damn room for the full three days and if I hadn't had my books and training to keep me occupied, I'd have been bored silly. In fact, I was still bored silly because I didn't even have Flip and Flop to provide entertainment by pranking the other applicants as they made it to the bottom of the tower."

"How did you get down to the bottom of the tower so quickly?" Leorio demanded with a frown at the same time as Kurapika asked, "Where were your eagles if they weren't with you?"

"I left them outside once I reached the base so that they could stretch their wings and hunt; they've been far too restricted since the Exam started and they needed the break," Harry answered for Kurapika before he glanced over at Leorio as he answered the tall man's question. "And I took a shortcut."

"Why didn't you tell us that you'd found a shortcut," Leorio complained.

"I doubt you'd have been willing to follow me."

"Why's that?" Kurapika asked curiously when he noted the smirk that Harry was wearing.

"I jumped."

"What!?"

"I jumped over the side… well; technically you could say I threw myself head first over the side."

The two older applicants gaped at Harry in shock as they tried to process what he'd just told them and Harry snickered in response to the looks on their faces. Before they could question him further, a short man with a wide, spiked Mohawk wearing a black uniform with white trim and wide glasses approached the applicants alongside the tall bald man that had let Harry into the tower the first day.

"Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to congratulate all twenty-eight of you on successfully escaping Trick Tower," the man intoned once he had everyone's attention and Harry recognized his voice as the one that had spoken each time another applicant had made it to the base of the tower and passed the test. "For those who missed my introduction towards the start of the Third Phase, I am Lippo; the examiner that was in charge of overseeing the Third Phase. Only two more phases of this year's Hunter's Exam remain; the Fourth Phase and the Final Phase. The Fourth Phase will be taking place on Zevil Island; if you look behind me you can see the island for yourself. I will now explain the rules of the Fourth Phase."

The man paused for a moment as the bald man that had let Harry into the tower three days earlier appeared with a small square cart with black box seated on top of it. Lippo waited for everyone to shift a little closer before he continued, "All of you will be required to draw lots in order to decide who will be hunting who during the next task. There are a total of twenty-eight cards to choose from; one card for each applicant that passed the Third Phase. The order you will draw in is the order in which you completed the previous task. Will the first person please come forward and pick your card?"

"That's me," Harry murmured as he confidently strode forward, stuck his hand in the box, and promptly screamed out loud as if he was in pain while acting as if he couldn't pull his hand free. He then fell silent as he pulled out a card and smirked as he turned back to face the other applicants before he drawled a playful, "Gotcha."

A number of the other applicants gave him a dirty look in response to his antics but Harry just grinned unrepentantly as he returned to his spot beside Kurapika and Leorio while number forty-four strode forward to draw his card next. Harry was tackled a moment later by a laughing Gon and Killua; the two twelve year olds had appreciated the prank he'd just played on the entire group. Kurapika slapped him across the back of his head the moment Harry fought free of the two boys and got back up to his feet.

Eventually, Harry's four on again, off again companions went up to draw their cards with Tonpa going last. Their attention was then drawn back to the examiner as he instructed them to remove the seals covering the face of the cards. Harry stared down at the number in his hand as Lippo informed them that the number on their card was their target and that their objective was to steal their target's ID badge. When Lippo said that they could do as they pleased to retrieve their badges, including killing their targets; Harry frowned as he cast a glance towards those applicants that he'd pegged as being extra dangerous (such as number forty-four, three-oh-one, and three-eighty-four).

"Listen closely! Your target's badge is worth three points. Your own badge is worth another three points. All other badges are worth one point each. You must have a total of six points in order to advance to the Final Phase of this year's Hunter's Exam. Your transportation to Zevil Island will be arriving in about ten minutes; please do not leave the area as you will be disqualified if you miss the boat."

Harry looked down at the card in his hand again before he removed his badge and tucked it into his mokeskin pouch along with the card with his target's number on it to keep them safe. He then let his eyes search through the other applicants until he found the man he recalled seeing wearing the badge number he'd drawn as his target. Harry turned slightly to give the appearance that he was still searching for his target before he studied the man out of the corner of his eye in order to assess how difficult it would be to steal the man's badge from him without getting caught.

Harry smirked after a moment when he realized that all he needed to do was summon the man's badge from him the moment he set foot on the island. Then he'd just need to prevent the applicant that had drawn his number from taking his badge in return; not that anyone could actually take it from him thanks to the charms on his mokeskin pouch. That didn't mean he'd make it out of the task alive though; since the one hunting him might decide that it was easier to just kill him instead of merely trying to steal his badge from him.

"Are we all going to stick together?" Gon asked, drawing Harry's attention away from his target.

"Probably best not to because we'll each need to hunt down our target," Kurapika pointed out as he briefly frowned. "We haven't yet been told how much time we will have to collect our target's badge and if we stay together there's a chance one or more of us will fail if we run out of time before we can corner everyone's target."

"We should make plans to meet up towards the end of the task though, in case one of us needs help because we ran into trouble along the way," Leorio suggested logically. "If we each collect at least two extra badges, then we'd be able to make certain that all of us pass the task."

"If we meet up after roughly two-thirds of our time has passed, we can work together to collect extra badges for anyone who is short of the six needed points if we don't have enough on hand," Killua agreed as he glanced at Leorio from the corner of his eye.

"It would also be far easier to keep hold of the badges we collect if we finish as a group," Kurapika added after considering the suggestions for a moment. "What about you, James? Will you join up with us later or are you going to run this phase alone like you did the last three?"

"I wouldn't mind hanging out towards the end of the task. I'll probably just spend most of my time exploring the island with Flip and Flop anyway."

"Awful cocky, aren't you?" Leorio asked as he leaned down to look Harry in the eye.

"No, I'm just easily bored and exploring a new place sounds rather appealing right now."

"How long do you think it will take you to get your target's badge?" Killua asked out of curiosity as the arrival of their transportation to the island was announced by one of the other applicants.

"Hmm… I'd say between fifteen and twenty minutes; possibly less," Harry replied as the five of them headed towards the boat together.

"Yep, I knew it; you're a cocky little runt," Leorio muttered.

"My eagles have excellent eyesight and they have been trained to steal," Harry dryly pointed out as he glanced sideways at the man.

"You were the one pranking a bunch of the applicants just before the First Phase began," Killua deduced in surprise the moment that Harry mentioned that his birds had been trained to steal. "How did you hide the birds though? No one ever saw who or what it was that was taking things."

"Pranking? Me?" Harry asked incredulously, though the amusement in his eyes was plain to see over the top of his tinted lenses. "I pranked no one; I was simply playing a game of I-Spy with my eagles to keep them from getting bored." That earned him several chuckles, a couple of snorts, and an eye roll from the others and Harry grinned before he grew serious as he addressed Killua's other questions. "And I can't tell you how I made it so that no one could see Flip and Flop; you're far too young."

"What the hell do you mean I'm too young? I'm only a year or two younger than you are!"

"Actually, you're five years younger than I am," Harry countered as he stopped walking and let out a shrill whistle to call Flip and Flop to him; drawing the attention of everyone else for a brief moment. He boarded the boat a moment later, knowing the eagles would join him eventually before he finished, "I turned seventeen this past summer."

"You don't look seventeen," Leorio remarked in some surprise.

"Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'never judge a book by its cover'?"

"Can you blame him for thinking you're younger than you are?" Kurapika asked with a small smirk. "It's not as if you act your age. You bounce back and forth between two extremes; from acting far too mature for your age to acting like a toddler with a sugar rush. And you are practically the same height as both Gon and Killua."

Harry sighed as he tucked his hands into his pockets and stared out over the ocean and considered on whether or not he wanted to lie to Kurapika and the others (especially in light of the friendship he was quickly developing with the small group; though he wasn't really close to Leorio at all). After a few minutes, he realized that he had no choice but to lie least someone who knew who he was to the wizarding world learned of him and sent word back to Dumbledore. That didn't mean he couldn't add some truth into the mix; since James Evans's story was closely tied to that of Harry Potter's story.

"I'm an orphan; my teenage mother abandoned me to the foster care system before I was two minutes old so that she could run off to chase her dreams," Harry stated while mentally apologizing to his parents for not acknowledging their sacrifice in his alter ego's life story. "The foster family I ended up with was rather stingy and food was always in short supply during the years I lived there; which is the reason why I ended up on the short and scrawny side."

"Is that why you're taking the Hunter's Exam then? To make a name for yourself and get rich?" Leorio inquired with blatant curiosity.

"No, officially, I decided to apply for the Hunter's Exam to find myself or rather find out who I wanted to be."

"What do you mean by officially?" Gon asked as he moved to stand beside Harry's elbow.

"It means that was the reason he gave on his application for wishing to take the Exam," Kurapika explained. "And most likely the reason that he told the captain of the Kaijinmaru when he passed the captain's test at some point before we did."

"Aye," Harry confirmed as he finally pulled his eyes away from the ocean to glance at the four people standing beside him. He then dropped his voice lower so his words would not be carried away on the wind as he added, "Please don't ask me my real reasons for taking the Exam; I do not wish to speak of them where any of the other applicants might overhear them."

All four of them nodded in response; though both Kurapika and Killua had speculative looks on their faces and Harry knew that they would be the ones most likely to bring the subject up again at some point. The solemn mood was broken a heartbeat later when twin honking calls sounded out just moments later as Flip and Flop dropped down to land on top of the bulwark beside Harry; the two birds finally reaching his side from where ever they had been roosting or hunting when he first called them.

"Attention!" Harry ordered as he turned towards the two birds; both of them puffing up their chests, raising their beaks slightly, and holding their wings straight down at their sides in response to Harry's order. Harry critically inspected the two birds before he ordered, "At ease, gentlemen." The two birds shifted the tips of their wings behind their backs, shifted their feet into a more comfortable position, and relaxed slightly.

Harry then asked, "Was the fishing good?" Both birds nodded an affirmative in sync. "Did you both get plenty of rest?" Another synchronized nod was given in reply. "Did you prank the seagulls again?" There was a brief hesitation before both birds shook their heads no. "Are you fibbing to me?" Harry asked; causing both birds to sheepishly ruffle their feathers, shift nervously on their feet, and duck their heads in embarrassment. "You are, aren't you?" Two sheepish nods were given before the birds shifted closer together in their guilt.

"Do I even want to know what it was you did?" Harry asked dryly as he crossed his arms and both birds rapidly shook their heads no. "You weren't robbing their nests again, were you?" There was an immediate denial from both birds before Flop held out his left wing and shook it. "You were plucking flight feathers?" Both birds nodded before Flip raised his right foot and shook it before making a throwing motion. "And you smacked them about with fish." Another set of nods were given before the birds dropped their heads low in shame.

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes before he asked, "Did you at least have fun?" The two eagles immediately perked up and bobbed their heads in excitement before adding several honking calls that rose and fell in pitch and volume; as if they were telling Harry exactly how much fun they were having. Harry chuckled fondly before he fished out a couple of Hawker's Treats for the birds from his mokeskin pouch.

"Just how well trained are those birds?" Leorio inquired curiously after watching Harry interacting with them just now.

"Very well," Harry replied proudly as he reached out to scratch both birds beneath the beak. "They were fully trained messenger hawks when I purchased them and I've taught them several tricks since then."

"They really like you a lot," Gon stated with certainty. "I could hear the affection in their voices when they were telling you the details of just how they pranked the seagulls and the names the seagulls called them in turn."

"You actually understood what they were saying?" Harry asked in some surprise as he glanced between the two eagles and the twelve year old.

"Yes, I've always been able to speak to the animals; though birds are the easiest for me to understand."

"That's so cool," Harry exclaimed after taking a few seconds to digest that information. "Would you be willing to ask them if they're happy with me? I sometimes worry that I am asking too much of them."

Harry avidly watched as the twelve year old carried on a conversation with the two birds; all three of them using a combination of calls, cries, and gestures. It reminded him of the conversation he'd once held with the python at the zoo before his eleventh birthday; back before he'd learned about the stigma that was associated with snake speakers.

"They are very happy with you," Gon stated when the conversation finally ended. "They love the fact that you don't treat them as servants or simple minded birds and see you as being one of them. They also said something about appreciating the fact that you don't ignore them because of what happened to your first companion… do you know what that means?"

"Yes; I know what they are referring to," Harry replied with a small grimace over the reminder of the lost Hedwig before a small smile took its place as he focused on the knowledge that his new feathered companions were content with him. "Thank you, Gon; knowing they feel the way they do is a true gift."

"You're welcome," Gon replied happily.

Their group split apart a few minutes later, Gon and Killua wandering away as they chatted about Gon's ability to talk to animals, Kurapika and Leorio heading for a spot to sit and rest for the duration of the journey, and Harry staying where he was to lavish attention on the two eagles. They would regroup an hour and a half later when the boat pulled up alongside a cliff where the water was deep and dropped anchor before putting out the gangplank.

They'd reached Zevil Island and the Fourth Phase was about to start.

The tension between all twenty-eight applicants was high as they were told that they would be stranded on the island for five days. They would have five days to collect their target's badge and five days in which they would have to avoid having their badge taken by the one hunting them. The news that they would be let off the boat in two minute increments according to the order in which they completed the Third Phase was almost as unwelcome as the number of days they'd be trapped on the island; especially for those that would be the last to leave the boat.

"Are we still going to meet before the test ends?" Gon asked worriedly as the woman answered a few questions that the other applicants were asking. "If so, where are we going to meet?"

"We shouldn't talk about that on the boat," Kurapika quickly pointed out. "We'll all be getting off within minutes of each other, not counting James; we can simply gather off to one side just out of sight and make our plans out of sight of the others."

"I'll come back and find you after I take my target's badge," Harry hurriedly stated in a low voice just as the woman called for number one to leave the boat.

Harry then sent Flip and Flop into the air as he headed for the gangplank and crossed over onto the island. The wizard then gave a jaunty salute to the rest of the applicants before he darted off into the forest and quickly disappeared from sight. The moment he was out of view, Harry cast the Notice-Me-Not Charm over himself along with the Muffling Charm (to prevent someone from hearing him). He then pulled out his invisibility cloak (to keep those with twitchy trigger fingers from shooting at him if they caught a glimpse of him from the corner of their eye before the charm could affect them), pulled it on, and headed back towards the boat before he climbed up into a tree at the edge of the forest so he could wait for his target; taking out his broom in case he needed to get closer to the man.

Eighteen minutes after Harry left the boat, number eighty-nine set foot on the island and chose to take a more southerly direction than any of the other applicants had taken so far and Harry mounted his broom and chased after him. The moment his target slipped beneath the trees, Harry pulled out his wand, dropped lower, and moved closer as he incanted a soft, "_Accio_ badge eighty-nine," while keeping a firm image of the badge in his mind and focusing on his desire to have that badge in his hand.

The magic of the spell pulled the badge free from the man's back pocket two seconds later and the white disk soared straight to Harry; the man never even noticed. Grinning like a loon, Harry slipped his left hand out from underneath his cloak and snagged the badge from the air as he slowed to a stop. Snickering under his breath, Harry slipped the stolen badge into his mokeskin pouch before he turned around and returned to the landing point so that he could wait for the others to disembark. Killua would be the first one to leave the boat forty-six minutes after Harry had left and twenty-four minutes after Harry had taken his target's badge.

Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio would follow in rapid succession and Harry marked them from the air as they all headed off towards the north before they gathered in a small clearing inside of the forest well out of sight of the boat. Harry flew a short circuit through the nearby forest to make certain that none of the other applicants were hanging about in the immediate area before he returned to the clearing and set up a temporary privacy ward to insure that their conversation would not be overheard by anyone.

Once he finished with that, Harry dropped down onto the nearest tree, pulled off his invisibility cloak, returned both his cloak and his broom to his mokeskin pouch, and canceled the other two spells. He then dropped down into the clearing; startling all four of those standing in the clearing. Harry snickered and smirked in response to their reactions as he sauntered over to join them.

"Long time no see," Harry drawled cheerfully as he stopped between Gon and Killua.

"Did you give up taking your target's badge already?" Leorio asked once he regained his composure.

"Not at all."

"Don't tell me, one of the four of us is your target," Leorio exclaimed a heartbeat later.

"Nope," Harry countered with a smug grin. "I collected the badge I needed within four minutes of my target stepping off the boat."

"Prove it!"

Harry arched an eyebrow at the command before he reached into his mokeskin pouch and pulled out both of the badges that were inside, "Is that proof enough?"

"What are you going to do for the next five days?" Kurapika asked while Leorio's jaw hit the ground in disbelief.

"I'll set up camp in this clearing since it's conveniently close to the landing site before I spend the rest of my time exploring the island or training."

"Won't it be too dangerous to camp so close to the landing site?"

"Nah, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I can use to hide and protect my camp from the other applicants."

"Should we use this clearing as our meeting spot on the morning of the fourth day then?" Killua inquired a heartbeat later.

"That should work; though it might take time to reach this clearing if we end up on the other side of the island, so the meeting time should be set for sometime after noon," Kurapika alternately suggested.

"That won't give us much time to collect additional badges if one of us is short of the needed six points," Leorio pointed out with a bit of a frown.

"It shouldn't be too hard to ambush the other returning applicants by that time," Harry interjected at that point. "Those applicants that have their points are likely to start making their way back around that time so they could be close when the time runs out."

They spent another few minutes ironing out the details before the other four split up and headed off to track down their targets. The second they turned away from him, Harry discreetly summoned a loose strand of hair from each of them so that he could key them into the wards he would use to protect the clearing. He tied the strands around a button hole to keep from losing them as he went about setting up his tent before he dug out the book on wards that he'd found amongst the books from Hogwarts.

An hour later, Harry plucked out one of his hairs and set it on top of a flat slab of stone with the other four hairs. Harry then cast the final spell that would key the wards to those whose D.N.A. was contained in each of those strands of hair. It was a method of warding that had fallen out of practice due to the power requirements needed for casting the spell; since it relied more upon the caster's magic and will than blood based wards did due to the level of magic that could be found in living blood (meaning freshly spilled blood) when compared to the dead cells in a strand of hair. There was no need for him to key either of birds into the wards; since the wards would not affect any animal bar an animagus.

Camp now secure, Harry tucked his pack into his tent, reapplied the Notice-Me-Not Charm to himself and to both eagles, and pulled out his broom. The fifteen year old then took to the sky and headed out over the ocean to spend the next three hours simply flying, messing around pulling stunts and tricks, and playing tag with the matching menaces. After the first three hours on his broom, Harry headed back towards the island and lazily followed the coastline to get an idea of just how big the island was as well as look for anything interesting that might have washed up onto the shoreline. He ended up collecting more than a few cool looking pieces of driftwood, several ropes of dried seaweed (that he would wash and add to the eagles' nests), and a large assortment of seashells and rocks (including a few pieces of sun bleached coral).

Once he completed one lap around the entire island in the late afternoon, Harry returned to his camp to clean the sand and salt from his finds and to start supper. He also took the opportunity to call Dobby (now that he was alone) so that he could let Bill know that he'd made it through the first half of the Exam and to pass the three extra spider-eagle eggs he'd collected to Bill with an inquiry as to whether or not he'd ever heard of spider-eagles. Dobby also gave Harry an update on what was happening at Hogwarts (not much aside from the Ministry attempting to take over the school, Dumbledore still trying to find Harry, and Harry's friends undermining both efforts on Harry's behalf with Dobby's help).

After Dobby left, Harry spent the evening writing three letters; one to the crew of the Kaijinmaru, another to his friends (this one carefully edited to avoid giving away any information on where he was or what he was doing), and the longest one to Bill (providing a more detailed accounting of the first three tasks and asking the older wizard if he thought Harry had cheated because he'd used his magic to give him an edge in the Exam). All three letters were left unfinished so that Harry could add more during the rest of the week before he had Dobby deliver the ones going to people back in Britain while he'd send the remaining one with Flip or Flop after the end of the Hunter's Exam.

The next morning, Harry was up bright and early to do his morning exercises and training; heading out under the safety of a Notice-Me-Not Charm to run along the beach for an hour before he took the sky again to explore the interior of Zevil Island. He spotted a couple of the other applicants that day but made no move to interfere with their hunting (not even bothering to steal their badges). Harry was more interested in the island itself; checking out interesting landmarks, studying the strange creatures that lived there, and taking samples of any unfamiliar plants he came across. That and he didn't want to accidentally take one of his new friends' targets.

Lunch was eaten at the top of a waterfall near the highest point of the island where Harry could enjoy the view while Flip and Flop fished along the riverbank. He would then continue his explorations for the rest of the afternoon before he headed back to camp with the setting of the sun. Supper that night was fresh river trout grilled over an open fire (the fish provided by Flip and Flop) with baked potatoes and carrots that had been cooked in the coals of the fire. His evening was then spent between practicing his wandless spell casting and meditating.

His third day upon the island would pass much the same way as the second until shortly after supper when the applicant that had drawn Harry's badge number made his first attempt at taking the wizard's badge while making an attempt on the wizard's life at the same time.

* * *

**AN: **_*snickers* I had loads of fun writing this chapter. Winding up Killua is so much fun.  
_

_Anyway, the fourth phase will be wrapped up in the next chapter, I think; I might have stretched it out into two chapters but I can't remember off of the top of my head right now. Additionally, those of you who reading my other HxH/HP crossover will note similarities between this chapter and chapter 11 of the other one since the timelines have once again converged in the same chapter. Odd that - since they'd been off for most of the last few chapters. That story will be updated tomorrow. _

_I don't think there's anything else I need to comment on... aside from saying that I've greatly appreciated the response this story (and all of my other ones) have garnered over the course of the month. =) *Sets out dozens of freshly baked virtual pies and gallon sized buckets of ice cream* Enjoy! ~ Jenn_


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